Another Biden Judge Just Handed Sanctuary Cities a Free Pass While Americans Bury Their Dead

Here’s what you need to understand about Thursday’s ruling. A federal judge just told the Trump administration it has no right to stop New York City from actively obstructing immigration enforcement. Not because sanctuary policies are constitutional or just or remotely defensible on the merits. But because of standing. Because of technicalities. Because somewhere along the way, our legal system decided that procedural gymnastics matter more than dead Americans.

Judge Ramón E. Reyes Jr., a Biden appointee, dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against New York City’s sanctuary laws. His reasoning? Even if the administration proved its case, striking down the city’s restrictions wouldn’t matter because state laws would still prevent cooperation with ICE anyway. It’s the kind of circular logic that makes you want to throw your law degree in the garbage. The federal government can’t challenge the city because the state already blocks them, so why bother? Never mind that both levels of government are thumbing their noses at federal immigration authority.

The Trump administration filed more than two dozen lawsuits against jurisdictions harboring illegal immigrants through these so called sanctuary policies. New York City’s version restricts local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers, those holds that let federal agents pick up criminal aliens from local jails. Simple cooperation. Basic enforcement. The kind of thing that used to be called doing your job.

But Reyes found that the Justice Department’s arguments amounted to a backdoor around the Tenth Amendment. That’s the anti-commandeering doctrine at work, the principle that says the federal government can’t force states to enforce federal law. Which sounds reasonable until you realize we’re talking about immigration, one of the few areas where federal authority is supposed to be absolute and unquestioned.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani couldn’t contain his glee. He celebrated the ruling on social media, crowing about how the federal government tried to turn public servants into deportation agents. “Every New Yorker deserves to seek help from their city without fear of being targeted for deportation,” he wrote. Translation? Every illegal immigrant gets a free pass, no matter what crimes they commit, no matter who they hurt.

You know what gets lost in all this legal posturing? People like Joe Abraham. His daughter Katie died in a hit and run crash. The ruling drew sharp criticism from him, a father who has to live every single day knowing that sanctuary policies protected the person who killed his child. These aren’t abstract legal principles. These are fathers burying daughters. Mothers planning funerals. Families destroyed because politicians decided virtue signaling matters more than American lives.

Abhishek Kambli, a former federal prosecutor, called out the standing argument for what it is. Nonsense. “The sovereign harm is done just by the fact that New York City has the law on the books,” he told reporters. The city’s sanctuary policies harm federal authority whether or not state laws exist. It’s about respect for the constitutional order, about whether localities can just opt out of federal immigration law because they feel like it.

The judge rejected every angle the Justice Department tried. Express preemption, conflict preemption, field preemption. All denied. His reasoning hinged on the claim that federal immigration statutes don’t regulate private actors, therefore cities can instruct their employees to ignore federal requests. It’s creative, I’ll give him that. Creative like a defense attorney finding loopholes for a guilty client.

This is where we are now. Federal judges appointed by one administration systematically dismantling the immigration enforcement efforts of another. Not because the law demands it. Because politics does. Because the left has decided that borders are oppressive and enforcement is cruel and Americans concerned about illegal immigration are just xenophobic.

The Tenth Amendment matters. States’ rights matter. Limited government matters. But so does national sovereignty. So does the federal government’s constitutional authority over immigration. So does the basic principle that when someone enters this country illegally and commits crimes, we don’t create sanctuaries to shield them from consequences.

New York City will keep its sanctuary policies intact. ICE agents will keep getting stonewalled by local cops who’d rather protect criminal aliens than cooperate with federal authorities. And families like the Abrahams will keep wondering why their government cares more about illegal immigrants than about them. That’s the real ruling here. Not the legal technicalities. The message underneath it all.

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