New York immigration advocates and City Council members are calling for more rigorous training of city shelter staff, following a Gothamist investigation that raised questions about whether the workers properly followed the city’s sanctuary city protections when federal immigration officers visited facilities.
City Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, who chairs the Committee on General Welfare, which oversees the city's Department of Social Services, said Monday, “They definitely have to revisit how they’re training, what they’re training, how often they’re training — and get ahead of ICE,” the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The city agency runs most NYC shelters.
Ayala added, “Working with ICE or any level of law enforcement is intimidating. Many of the folks working in security don’t have that experience.
On two occasions earlier this year, incident reports obtained by Gothamist show shelter employees allowed federal immigration officers to enter private areas of shelters and, in a third case, gave officers information about a former resident, all without verifying that the officers had a judicial warrant.
In those cases, legal experts who reviewed the reports said staff violated the city’s sanctuary laws, which generally prohibit city staffers from allowing federal immigration officers to enter private areas of city property unless they have a judicial warrant. In one visit, an immigrant was taken into custody by federal immigration officers.
The Department of Social Services told Gothamist their staff never deliberately violated protocol or the law. Neha Sharma, an agency spokesperson, said, “Any rare, minor, and inadvertent lapses in protocol” were addressed by updating and distributing clearer guidance about how to respond to requests by federal immigration agents.
Sharma said the agency conducted “comprehensive systemwide trainings” on sanctuary laws in February for program directors, social workers and security guards across more than 400 shelters, and additional trainings are available on a case-by-case basis.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, a statewide nonprofit, said “trust in our public institution erodes” when the city’s shelter agency breaks local sanctuary laws.
“When the [Mayor-elect Zohran] Mamdami administration begins next month, there must be a commitment to enforcing our sanctuary laws and rigorously training all City staff on how to implement them,” Awawdeh said.
The findings reported by Gothamist come amid a surge in visits by federal immigration officers under the Trump administration. Department of Homeland Security and ICE officers visited city shelters at least 23 times in the first five months of 2025, after making no such visits last year. Some 31,600 migrants live in New York City’s shelters, representing over a third of the city’s shelter population, according to City Hall data.
Immigration advocates also criticized DHS and ICE, whose agents in two separate cases, incident reports show, bypassed front desk staff and entered private areas of city shelters without presenting a judicial warrant or getting staff permission.
Attorneys who reviewed the reports said those actions could also violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Christine C. Quinn, president and CEO of Win, the city’s largest shelter provider, said in a statement, “Win condemns ICE’s disregard of our nation’s Constitutional Rights, NYC’s sanctuary laws, and due process. The forceful and intimidating actions by ICE pose an existential threat to the safety and security of both shelter-based staff and clients.”
Spokespeople for DHS, which oversees ICE, did not respond to requests for comment.
