DOJ's Sanctuary-City Campaign Loses in New York: "No Valid Basis to Sue" Over NYC's Limits on Immigration Cooperation

DOJ's Sanctuary-City Campaign Loses in New York: "No Valid Basis to Sue" Over NYC's Limits on Immigration Cooperation

NEW (Oct. 15, 2026): A federal judge threw out the Trump administration's lawsuit challenging New York City's sanctuary laws — the first courtroom defeat for the administration's litigation campaign against sanctuary jurisdictions that this topic has tracked, and one more entry in the fall's court-loss ledger (see The Contestation Ledger: The Administration Is "Losing Court Cases at a Fast Clip" — and the Emergency Docket That Used to Rescue It Is Cooling).

The ruling: U.S. District Judge Ramon Reyes in Brooklyn dismissed the suit — filed in July 2025 as part of the administration's campaign against so-called sanctuary city policies — finding the government "did not have a valid basis to sue." Per Reuters:

• The administration could not challenge the city law barring police from detaining immigrants at federal request, "because that practice is already prohibited by state law."
• The city laws restricting local authorities from sharing release dates, whereabouts or other custody information about immigrants "were valid because federal law does not require state and local governments to share that information."
• Reyes "rejected the administration's arguments that federal law superseded the challenged New York City laws, finding the federal government could not force local governments to assist with immigration enforcement¹."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment — leaving open whether DOJ appeals to the Second Circuit or lets the dismissal stand.

What it means: the anti-sanctuary strategy has run through funding conditions (struck down by Judges Ali and Talwani in other cases) and now direct litigation — and the direct route failed on threshold standing grounds, without the court ever reaching the merits of the preemption claim. The ruling also reinforces the anti-commandeering baseline the administration has been testing all fall: federal money and federal courts can pressure local cooperation, but federal law cannot conscript local police into deportation enforcement.