Federal judge orders Mamdani admin to hand over names of criminals in Bronx homeless shelter to ICE

On Friday, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the city must provide a list of identifying information for some male residents at the Bruckner shelter in Mott Haven. Kaplan wrote, “The City has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome.”

ICE has claimed that the request for names, birthdays, and records of residents are relevant to an investigation as to whether any of the Bruckner residents are subject to deportation. They had initially sought the names of all residents, however, the agency consented to a special master being appointed to identify residents only with “certain serious criminal histories,” per the New York Post.

Kaplan wrote in his ruling, “Under the applicable case law, the Court therefore has no choice but to compel the subpoena’s enforcement, as modified by the appointment and role of a special master.”

ICE has filed four subpoenas since August 6 for information on residents at multiple city-run shelters. In rejecting the first subpoena, the city said it was “an improper fishing expedition lacking any legitimate investigative purpose.”

The Bruckner shelter first opened in 2025, and holds 2,200 beds. It was converted from a vacant South Bronx storage facility and is an emergency migrant shelter housing those asylum-seeking men displaced from the Randall’s Island migrant tent city. Mamdani’s administration released plans in February to phase out the use of Bruckner by the end of 2026.