NYC Audit Details Federal Immigration Visits to City Shelters

Audits of six New York City agencies found federal immigration authorities visited shelters and other facilities multiple times in 2025. The reports recorded an increase in detainer requests and described several instances of agents using administrative documents or plainclothes approaches.

The audits were conducted under Executive Order 13, which directed reviews of the Administration for Children's Services, the New York Police Department, the Department of Correction, the Department of Probation, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Department of Social Services.

The 19-page summary examined interactions between these agencies and federal immigration authorities.

The New York Police Department received 3,672 civil immigration detainer requests in 2025, compared with 99 the previous year. The department did not transfer any individuals to federal custody in response to those requests. In June 2025, Department of Homeland Security personnel visited a shelter and initially identified themselves as Fire Department officials before confirming their actual affiliation after a city employee requested identification.

In April 2025, officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the DEA visited shelters ten times, sometimes in plainclothes, and requested wellness checks or presented administrative warrants.

The report also described an incident in which ICE agents entered a Department of Probation building in Brooklyn, asked to use the bathroom, and attempted to examine the sign-in book before staff escorted them out after verifying their identification.

Recommendations include limiting immigration-status details in pre-sentencing reports, strengthening tracking of detainer requests, revising shelter access protocols, and requiring the NYPD Communications Division to notify operations staff of calls involving federal immigration authorities.

Faiza Ali, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said the findings would strengthen agency protocols when interacting with federal authorities.