By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced that the City has filed an amicus brief supporting plaintiffs in African Communities Together and The Door v. Todd Lyons et al., a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s unlawful campaign of arresting and detaining people who show up to for mandatory immigration proceedings.
The brief details the harms of the federal government’s ongoing campaign to arrest those showing up at courthouses when asked to do so and supports the lawsuit’s arguments that the feds are in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The brief supports the plaintiffs’ request for an immediate stop to these unlawful arrests.
The brief, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, argues that the Big Apple is less safe when immigrants are afraid to use basic services and attend immigration court hearings. The brief makes clear that the federal government’s arrests of immigrants in the vicinity of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan drives immigrants—who are otherwise inclined to follow the law—underground and undermines the very system that those laws are designed to serve. If residents fear that simply appearing in court to protect their rights or the rights of others could expose them to detention and removal, they will cease to do so and the judicial system will suffer, the brief argues. The five boroughs are home to more than 3 million immigrants, comprising nearly 40 percent of the city’s population. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration’s new immigration enforcement policies violate the Administrative Procedure Act by arbitrarily abandoning longstanding federal rules and laws limiting civil immigration arrests near courthouses and stripping away required due process protections for noncitizens. The City’s amicus supports plaintiffs’ motion seeking a stay of the policies.
This amicus follows several other amicus briefs by the City in support of individuals who were arrested at their immigration hearings, including public school students Dylan Lopez Contreras and Derlis Snaider and former Queens high school student Jose Luis.
“From my first days as a rookie cop to my current role as mayor of New York City, my job is, and has always been, to keep law-abiding New Yorkers safe. We should allow New Yorkers to feel secure to attend legal proceedings in their pursuit to obtain legal status,” said Adams. “I’ve been clear, no one in our city should feel forced to hide in the shadows or be afraid to use resources, and that includes sending children to school, going to a hospital when sick, calling 911 when in danger, or going to a court hearing when called upon to do so.”
“New York City has become the epicenter of the Trump administration’s courthouse arrest campaign,” added City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant. “With every illegal courthouse arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is chipping away at the bedrock principles of fairness and due process that support our entire system of justice. We strongly support plaintiffs in this case, who are fighting to uphold the rule of law and reverse an unprecedented federal policy that undermines the public good.”
