New York City became a sanctuary city on August 7, 1989, when Mayor Ed Koch signed Executive Order 124, “City Policy Concerning Aliens.” The order barred city employees from passing a person’s immigration status to federal immigration authorities unless that person was suspected of criminal activity. Every mayor since has kept the policy in some form, the City Council wrote its core protections into the Administrative Code in 2014, and the federal government is now suing to dismantle them.
What Executive Order 124 Did in 1989
Koch’s order applied to every city agency, including the NYPD. Its purpose was practical: let immigrants, including undocumented residents, use hospitals and schools and report crimes to police without worrying that a city worker would route their information to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.1U.S. House Judiciary Committee. City Policy Concerning Aliens – Hearing Transcript
The order was not a blanket shield. It carved out an exception for anyone “suspected by such agency of engaging in criminal activity,” and it told the NYPD specifically to cooperate with federal authorities investigating and apprehending noncitizens suspected of crimes. The line it drew was between routine civic interactions, where status would not be reported, and criminal investigations, where it could be.1U.S. House Judiciary Committee. City Policy Concerning Aliens – Hearing Transcript
There is no formal legal definition of “sanctuary city.” The term describes jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement in some way, along a spectrum that runs from refusing certain ICE detainer requests to restricting what local employees may ask or share. No sanctuary jurisdiction blocks all federal enforcement, and none cooperates fully.2Albany Law School. Sanctuary Jurisdictions Koch’s 1989 order placed New York City on that spectrum by limiting information-sharing.
Why the City Adopted the Policy
The order came out of the 1980s sanctuary movement, which grew in response to the Central American refugee crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans were fleeing civil wars, and the federal government was treating most of them as economic migrants rather than refugees. Religious congregations began sheltering them, and cities began translating that defiance into municipal policy. Los Angeles adopted an early sanctuary policy in 1979; Berkeley and San Francisco followed in 1985.3The Conversation. Sanctuary Cities in the US Were Born in the 1980s Koch’s 1989 order placed New York in the same wave.
How the Policy Survived Through Later Mayors
Executive orders only last as long as the next mayor wants them to. Both David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani reissued Koch’s order, keeping the core protections in place through administrations with very different politics.4NYC Bar Association. Mayor Eric Adams’s Threats to New York as a Sanctuary City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg initially pulled in the other direction. In May 2003 he signed Executive Order 34, authorizing city agencies to report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities. The backlash was fast. By October 2003 he reversed himself with Executive Order 41, which replaced the May order and again barred city agencies from disclosing residents’ immigration status to the federal government.5New York Immigration Coalition. Timeline
Federal law complicated the picture in the middle of this period. In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, including a provision at 8 U.S.C. § 1373 that prohibits state and local governments from restricting their employees’ ability to share immigration information with federal authorities. The statute was widely read to preempt the reporting restrictions in Executive Order 124, and the tension has never been fully resolved.1U.S. House Judiciary Committee. City Policy Concerning Aliens – Hearing Transcript After the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, which reinforced the rule that Congress cannot commandeer state and local governments, federal district courts in Chicago and Philadelphia concluded that § 1373 likely violates that anti-commandeering doctrine, giving cities like New York a basis to maintain their policies.6Congressional Research Service. Sanctuary Jurisdictions Federal Legal Issues
The 2014 Laws That Turned Policy Into Code
The biggest change to New York City’s sanctuary status came on November 14, 2014, when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Local Law 58 (Int. 486-A) and Local Law 59 (Int. 487-A). The laws moved sanctuary protections out of executive orders, which any future mayor could rescind, and into the city’s Administrative Code.7NYC Council Legislation Tracker. Int 0486-20148Intro NYC. Local Law 59 of 2014
The laws tightened the rules on ICE civil immigration detainers, the requests ICE sends to local jails asking them to hold someone for up to 48 hours past their scheduled release so federal agents can pick the person up. Under the 2014 laws, the city will honor a detainer only if ICE presents a judicial warrant issued by a federal judge or magistrate and the individual either was convicted of a violent or serious crime within the past five years or appears on the federal terrorist watchlist.
The same laws barred ICE from maintaining an office on Rikers Island or any other Department of Correction facility, prohibited DOC staff from sharing information about inmates’ release dates or court appearances with ICE absent a valid detainer, and required annual reporting. The ICE office on Rikers closed on February 14, 2015.9Immigrant Defense Project. New York City Passes Groundbreaking Detainer Reform Law
What the Sanctuary Rules Require Now
New York City’s sanctuary protections now sit across several sections of the Administrative Code:
- § 10-178 prohibits the use of city resources for immigration enforcement.
- § 4-210 prohibits non-local law enforcement, including ICE, from entering non-public areas of city property without a judicial warrant.
- § 23-1202 restricts city employees and contractors from sharing identifying information with immigration officials, with limited exceptions.
- §§ 9-131, 9-205, and 14-154 set the detainer framework, allowing cooperation only when the individual has a qualifying conviction within the last five years and ICE presents a judicial warrant.4NYC Bar Association. Mayor Eric Adams’s Threats to New York as a Sanctuary City
State law backs several of these protections. A state appellate court held in People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco (2018) that detaining someone solely on an ICE administrative warrant is unlawful under New York law because such warrants lack probable cause.10New York Attorney General. Immigration Enforcement
The Current Fight Over the Policy
Mayor Eric Adams began pulling against the city’s sanctuary framework after the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants beginning in 2022. In February 2024 he called for changes allowing the deportation of immigrants “suspected” of violent crimes; City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the council had “no plans to take up any changes.”11CNN. New York City Mayor Eric Adams Sanctuary City After the November 2024 election, Adams met with Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan and said the city could be “very helpful” on federal enforcement. A January 2025 administration memo told city workers and shelter operators they could admit federal immigration agents into non-public areas without a judicial warrant if they “reasonably feel threatened,” guidance that appeared to conflict with Administrative Code § 4-210; after criticism from the City Council and labor unions, the administration issued revised guidance.4NYC Bar Association. Mayor Eric Adams’s Threats to New York as a Sanctuary City
Adams also signed Executive Order 50, which sought to let ICE re-establish an office on Rikers Island. The City Council and advocacy groups sued. A temporary restraining order issued on April 25, 2025, a preliminary injunction followed on June 13, 2025, and the Appellate Division denied the administration’s attempt to appeal on June 26, 2025. On September 8, 2025, State Supreme Court Justice Mary Rosado declared Executive Order 50 “null and void,” finding an “impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest.” The city announced plans to appeal.12NYC Council. Court Decision on Executive Order 5013ABC7 New York. State Supreme Court Blocks ICE Office at Rikers Island
The federal government has opened a broader front. On April 28, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14287, “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens,” directing federal officials to publish a list of jurisdictions obstructing federal immigration enforcement, identify federal funding streams for suspension or termination, and pursue “all necessary legal remedies.”14The White House. Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens On July 24, 2025, the Department of Justice sued New York City, Mayor Adams, the City Council Speaker, the Department of Correction, the Department of Probation, and the NYPD in the Eastern District of New York, arguing that the city’s sanctuary laws obstruct federal enforcement and are preempted by the Supremacy Clause.15U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Sues New York City Over Sanctuary Policies The DOJ formally added New York City to its published list of sanctuary jurisdictions on August 5, 2025.16U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Publishes List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions In January 2026, Trump announced that federal funding would be withheld from sanctuary jurisdictions beginning February 1, 2026, though the targeted programs and dollar figures were not publicly detailed.17ABC7 New York. Trump Says Federal Government Will No Longer Fund Sanctuary Cities
New York City’s sanctuary laws are still in effect. The city has moved to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit, and in February 2026 Attorney General Letitia James filed an amicus brief supporting the city.18New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Defends Public Safety and Immigrant Communities The case is pending in the Eastern District of New York, and its outcome will decide how much of what Koch began in August 1989 survives.