(The Center Square) — Amid threats of a federal immigration crackdown, the Democratic-led New York City Council has approved a plan requiring courthouses, city buildings, schools and other public locations to post details about the city’s ‘sanctuary’ laws.
The measure, approved Thursday by 44-6 along party lines, will require the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to post ‘know your rights’ signs across the city outlining New York’s rules for encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and offering guidance to immigrants and their families who are approached by federal agents.
It would also require the New York City Department of Education to post “age-appropriate versions” of signage describing DOE’s policies “regarding access to school property and participation in or assistance with immigration enforcement.”
Democrats who pushed through the measure — just hours after it was unanimously approved by the council’s Committee on immigration — say the move is necessary with the Trump administration threatening to surge ICE agents in the city in response to its resistance to immigration enforcement.
“This bill comes at a critical moment for our city and our immigrant communities,” Council Member Alexa Avilés, a Brooklyn Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor, said in remarks. “As the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation agenda New York City must push for humane policies that center care for our immigrant communities.”
She said the legislation will give immigrants who are confronted by ICE agents “the confidence they need to assert their rights in stressful situations” and “remind city employees around their obligations of our laws.”
Several Republican council members voted against the measure, blasting it as taxpayer-funded anti-ICE propaganda that promotes sanctuary policies in defiance of the Trump administration.
“Public buildings should not be used to advance political or ideological messages,” GOP Councilwoman Vicke Paladino said in remarks Thursday. “Schools, especially, must remain focused on educating our children, not promoting government-sponsored viewpoints on contentious policy issues.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has pledged to target New York City over its sanctuary policies that restrict local cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns and a law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul that expands many of those policies statewide.
It’s not clear if Mayor Zohran Mamdani will sign the legislation but shortly after taking office he posted a video outlining the city’s sanctuary policies, vowing to “protect” the city’s 3 million immigrants from the Trump administration’s crackdowns, and “safeguard” New Yorkers’ constitutional right to demonstrate against ICE operations. He has called ICE a “rogue” federal agency.
