Judge orders city to give ICE names of Bronx migrant shelter residents

What happened

A federal judge has ruled that the Mamdani administration must give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the names and birthdays of certain men living in a large, city-run homeless shelter in the Bronx. Gothamist reported the ruling on 11/07/2026. It described it as Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The shelter is a converted warehouse on Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx. It sleeps more than 2,000 people and is the city's last emergency migrant housing facility. The ruling requires the city to turn over a list of certain male residents, their birthdays and any additional records that would help ICE identify them. ICE had asked for the names of all residents. According to Gothamist, a special master will identify only residents with "serious criminal histories." Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in February that he plans to phase out the shelter by the end of the year.

ICE says it needs the information for an investigation into residents who may be subject to deportation. City Hall has barred city agencies from cooperating with ICE and fought the subpoena in court. The city argued the request was more "political" than investigatory. Judge Kaplan wrote that the city had not shown that producing the list would be unduly burdensome, so the court had "no choice but to compel the subpoena's enforcement."

Since August 2025, ICE has submitted four separate subpoena requests for personal information about residents of New York City shelters, and the city fought them. The city called a previous request a "fishing expedition." The mayor's office did not respond to Gothamist's requests for comment. The New York Immigration Coalition is urging the city to appeal. Its president, Murad Awawdeh, said providing data for civil immigration enforcement is illegal under local law.