New York judge blocks ICE office from opening on Rikers Island
NEW YORK (PIX11) — The Supreme Court of the State of New York has issued a preliminary injunction to block New York City Mayor Eric Adams from opening an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at Rikers Island.
The ruling on Friday came after Adams previously announced that Homeland Security would work with the NYPD and the city's Department of Correction to investigate gang activity at Rikers Island.
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'The State Supreme Court's ruling will effectively prevent thousands of New Yorkers a year from being deported simply because they were accused – not even convicted – of a crime,' said the President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition Murad Awawdeh.
'New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump's mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws,' the statement continued.
More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State
ICE previously had officers on Rikers Island until 2014 when the City Council passed sanctuary laws that banned the organization from operating in NYC jails.
Advocates had been hoping to block immigration officials from reestablishing an office on Rikers Island saying that the agency had been depriving defendants of due process, some of whom may be in the U.S. legally.
According to court documents, judges found that reestablishing an ICE office on Rikers Island would risk 'damage to reputation, loss of goodwill, and brand tarnishment' to New York City due to its reputation as a 'Sanctuary City.'
'Moreover, the imminent threat of the loss of public trust in government institutions serves as a basis for injunctive relief,' the court document reads.
The injunction makes it so that all other NYC government officials, officers, personnel and agencies are barred from creating an ICE office on Rikers until the end of the proceeding.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Deadly lawmaker ambush in Minnesota raises fears about fake police officers knocking on doors
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'Afghanistan is a country that is landlocked, that struggles with trade, that more than 50% of their population are not allowed to get an education beyond sixth grade. It's a fact that it is led by a deeply religious regime that has a lot of problems,' she added. Hundreds of Afghans have been publicly flogged by the authorities since the Taliban took over in 2021, the Guardian reported last month. In a bipartisan approach, US Senators Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, have written jointly to secretary of state Marco Rubio. 'We are writing to express profound concern over the recent decision to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for over 8,000 Afghan nationals currently residing in the United States. This decision endangers thousands of lives, including Afghans who stood by the United States. This decision represents a historic betrayal of promises made and undermines the values we fought for far more than 20 years in Afghanistan,' the letter reads. It added that revoking TPS, especially for women and minority groups, 'exposes these individuals to the very real threat of persecution, violence and even death under Taliban rule'. While the US government hasn't laid out a deportation plan, it has encouraged Afghans who lose their TPS status to leave the country. However, a DHS official said: 'Any Afghan who fears persecution is able to request asylum. All aliens who have had their TPS or parole terminated or are otherwise in the country unlawfully should take advantage of the CBP Home self-deportation process to receive a free one-way plane ticket and $1,000 financial assistance to help them resettle elsewhere.' Bipartisan efforts to give Afghans permanent legal status in the US previously stalled for three years, with the Biden administration creating temporary avenues for those in limbo. Many Afghan families in the US still depend on the future of TPS, said Jill Marie Bussey, the director for legal affairs at Global Refuge, an immigrant rights group that has helped thousands of Afghans settle in the US. 'Protection from deportation is the center, but the work authorization associated with the status is the only thing that is allowing them to send money to their loved ones right now and keeping them safe,' said Bussey. 'I have a client, whom I message with almost on a daily basis, who is absolutely distraught, at a very high level of anxiety, because he fears that his spouse and children, including his four-year-old daughter, whom he's never met in person, will suffer greatly if he loses his work authorization.' According to government data, since July of 2021, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received nearly 22,000 asylum applications by Afghan nationals. Nearly 20,000 of them were granted. But given the immigration court backlog, which totals 3.5 million active cases and an average wait time between five to 636 days, many Afghans still haven't heard any news on their applications on other status available to them, Bussey added. In a similar scenario are those who worked for the US government in Afghanistan and arrived on American soil. Many are still waiting for an approval from the US Department of State that would validate their eligibility for a special immigration visa (SIV), Bussey added. 'Some were hesitant to apply for asylum because they were eligible for SIV and were waiting for their approval in order to apply for their green card,' she said. But things are badly held up in the backlog. 'They were promised that green card based on their allyship to our country and then applying for asylum felt like a betrayal, an imperfect fit for them,' said Bussey. The Guardian requested information on how many Afghans currently protected by TPS have also been granted other legal status, but DHS did not respond.
