New York's Democrat leadership has refused to honor more than 16,000 federal immigration detainers since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to Department of Homeland Security data released Monday — and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is naming names.
The figures, first reported by the New York Post and confirmed in DHS statements, show that from January 20, 2025, through October 8, 2026, municipalities across New York declined 16,070 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. ICE files those requests asking local authorities to hold an illegal alien already in their custody so federal agents can take them into federal custody for processing and deportation.
According to DHS, the individuals covered by the rejected New York detainers have accumulated 52,503 criminal charges or convictions, including 131 homicides, 132 kidnappings, 1,017 sexual offenses, 1,561 DUI counts, 1,631 burglaries, 1,776 robberies and 2,198 weapons infractions.
Mullin did not mince words.
"Governor Hochul's sanctuary policies have been a disaster for New York and the rest of the country," Mullin posted on X. "The Department of Homeland Security condemns these reckless and evil sanctuary policies and demands that Governor Hochul and her fellow sanctuary politicians put a stop to this before any more innocent lives are lost."
Speaking to the New York Post, Mullin added: "We enforce these laws with no help from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul. While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement officers will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make America safe again. Illegal aliens have no sanctuary in America."
The data release was tied to a recent ICE-involved shooting in New York City, in which DHS says an illegal immigrant "weaponized his vehicle against" ICE officers, prompting an officer to fire in self-defense. DHS pointed to the case of Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Tren de Aragua gang member from Venezuela who was arrested by NYPD officers for recklessly driving a motorcycle with a 2-year-old child aboard without a helmet. Released under sanctuary policies, Ibarra went on to assault and murder 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on her college campus in Georgia.
New York's non-cooperation is not an accident. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act in August, which imposed restrictions on certain types of statewide cooperation with ICE on civil immigration matters. The result, according to DHS, is a system in which federal officers must spend additional money and manpower tracking down criminals that local jails could have simply handed over.
Hochul's office pushed back on the characterization. "Governor Hochul has been clear: New York State is not and never will be a sanctuary for violent criminals. By law, New York State always notifies federal immigration enforcement of any non-citizen serving a State prison sentence," her office told the New York Post.
The numbers point to a bigger fight in Washington. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is pushing the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act, introduced in February by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee last month and would create a private right of action letting victims and families of victims sue sanctuary cities, states and officials who release violent offenders — piercing the qualified and sometimes absolute immunity those officials currently enjoy.
Jordan told Just the News the bill gives people who have been harmed a path to court: "It allows people who've been harmed, where local political leaders tell the local law enforcement they can't work with federal law enforcement, detainers aren't honored … to go take that city, take that state to court, and say, 'look, this was ridiculous.'" Jordan added that he wants to move the bill in the lame-duck session after the midterms.
The bill would also require DHS to issue detainers for people arrested for criminal or motor-vehicle offenses, strip federal funds from localities that refuse to cooperate, and grant federal immunity to officers who do.
Jordan pointed to DHS figures showing 201,340 detainers issued in 2025, with 17,864 declined nationwide. New York alone accounts for the overwhelming share of the current total, a state where Democrats hold every lever of power in Albany and City Hall.
Our Take
Sixteen thousand times, New York looked federal immigration officers in the eye and said no. Not no to a paperwork request — no to holding a criminal for a few hours so ICE could pick him up. And the bill for that refusal is written in 131 homicide charges, 1,017 sexual offense charges and 2,198 weapons counts. Those aren't statistics. They're the price of Kathy Hochul's politics.
Notice the shell game Albany plays. Hochul's office says New York is "not and never will be a sanctuary for violent criminals." But the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act she signed in August does exactly what the name hides: it ties local law enforcement's hands on civil immigration cooperation. You cannot sign a law restricting cooperation and then act shocked when cooperation doesn't happen. The 16,070 declined detainers are the predictable output of the policy, not an accident.
And the human cost has a face and a name. Laken Riley should be alive today. Jose Antonio Ibarra was in NYPD custody, and sanctuary policy put him back on the street, where he eventually ended up in Georgia and took her life. Every politician who defends these policies should be forced to say Laken's name out loud and explain why New York's rules mattered more than her future.
That's why the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act is the right fight. For too long, the officials who release violent offenders have hidden behind immunity that ordinary citizens would never get. Jim Jordan's bill flips that: if your city hands a killer back to the streets and your family pays for it, you get your day in court. That's not radical. That's accountability, the thing Albany fears most.
Mullin called these policies "evil." He's right, and the word fits. This isn't a disagreement over immigration paperwork. It's a deliberate choice by elected officials to protect criminal aliens at the expense of American citizens — and to make the men and women of ICE risk their lives cleaning up the mess.
So here's the question for every New Yorker: how much longer will you accept a governor and a mayor who treat violent criminals as a protected class and your family as an afterthought? The detainers are documented. The charges are documented. The victims are real. Demand the turn-over, demand the bill, and vote like your life depends on it — because for someone in your neighborhood, it might.
