Persons not to be detained by the police department.

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to persons not to be detained by the police department.

The federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency (“ICE”) files an “immigration detainer” with the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) when they believe an individual in NYPD custody is subject to removal from this country. The immigration detainer serves as a request that the NYPD detain the individual for up to 48 hours beyond when the individual would otherwise be released so that the individual’s custody may be transferred to ICE. This bill would significantly restrict the conditions under which the NYPD complies with these ICE requests. The NPYD would only honor an immigration detainer if it was accompanied by a warrant from a federal judge, and also only if that person had been convicted of a “violent or serious” crime during the last five years or was listed on a terrorist database. The bill would also allow the NYPD to honor an immigration detainer even if not accompanied by a judicial warrant if the subject had been convicted of a “violent or serious” crime or is a possible match on the federal terrorist watch list and had previously been deported.