ICE agents arrest hundreds of migrants in sanctuary cities, including New York City

A deportation officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York City, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Federal law enforcement and ICE agents have arrested nearly 500 undocumented migrants wanted for outstanding crimes in sanctuary cities, including some from New York and New Jersey.

In New York, ICE agents arrested an alleged El Salvadorian MS-13 gang member, a Jamaican citizen who had been arrested for sexual exploitation of a minor and a Honduran citizen with a drunk driving conviction.

There were similar scenes in Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, DC.

A Justice Department memo threatened criminal charges against state and local officials who don’t cooperate with ICE, but New York Attorney General Letitia James says the Trump administration cannot force local law enforcement to help them detain and deport immigrants..

She said many of the immigration orders - which she called “the noise that is coming from Washington” -- are constitutional violations.

“The president cannot unilaterally rewrite the Constitution,” she said. “We are willing to work with the Office of President Trump,” but will protect “the rights of vulnerable or marginalized populations, including, but not limited to the immigrant communities.”

Internal memos to New York City schools explicitly stated ICE agents should not be allowed inside facilities under any circumstances.

The NYPD issued a memo as well, saying officers should not assist with federal immigration enforcement.

During a town hall in Corona, Queens Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams addressed those concerns from community members and said the city’s immigrant community should not go into hiding.

“Children should go to school. Those who need health care should go to hospitals,” he said. “Those who are involved in any type of interaction, where they’re victims of a crime, they should speak to law enforcement agencies. We’ve maintained that over and over again. And we are going to stand up for all New Yorkers, documented, and undocumented.”

New York is a so-called sanctuary city, and laws forbid city agencies from cooperating with immigration agents in all but criminal deportations.

Mayor Adams says he respects those laws he is sworn to uphold. Robert Holden is a Democratic councilmember from Queens.

“You can’t deport everyone that’s been staying here illegally,” Holden said. “Although, you know, technically, you could. But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I don’t think they’re going to just start deporting anybody. They’re going to focus on the criminals-who would be against that?”

In New York, there are more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants.

Meanwhile in Newark New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka revealed that federal immigration and ICE agents carried out a raid in his city on Thursday.

“Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a local establishment in the City of Newark, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant,” he said in a statement. “One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”

Baraka says the city “will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized.”

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- plus the District of Columbia and San Francisco -- are among 22 states that sued in federal court to block Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship to children of parents who are in the United States illegally.

™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.