Judge orders NYC to comply with narrowed ICE shelter subpoena

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on November 6 ordered New York City to comply with a narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoena seeking identifying information about certain male residents of a Bronx shelter. A court-appointed special master will screen the records and provide ICE only the names of residents with certain serious criminal histories.

Kaplan found that the city had not shown producing the information would be unduly burdensome. The order concerns the Bruckner Boulevard shelter, a city-run facility in the South Bronx. ICE’s request was narrowed from an earlier demand for names and birth dates of all residents at two city shelters.

The special master is to identify residents who meet the specified criminal-history criteria. The city and federal government have two weeks from the ruling to propose arrangements for the special master’s appointment and compensation. The order does not direct the city to hand ICE the full shelter roster.

ICE first served a subpoena in August 2025 seeking names and birth dates for all residents at two shelters. New York City declined to comply and argued that the requests lacked a legitimate investigative purpose, would impose...