Res. No. 391

Resolution calling on the United States House of Representatives to pass, the United States Senate to introduce and pass, and the President to sign H.R.7284, also known as the ICE OUT Act, to reform qualified immunity standards for officers and agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection engaged in law enforcement activities, and for other purposes

By Council Member Epstein

Whereas, Immigration enforcement under Trump’s second term has been aggressive, disturbing, and without common sense; and

Whereas, To fulfill their mass deportation agenda, the Trump Administration and its allies have increased the immigration enforcement workforce and funding significantly; and

Whereas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has added over 12,000 new agents in less than a year; and

Whereas, Under Trump’s second term, ICE has become the highest-funded United States law enforcement agency, with an $85 billion budget; and

Whereas, However, despite an increase in funding and workforce, the agency has scaled back training hours for its recruits; and

Whereas, In testimony before Democrats in Congress, Ryan Schwank, a former ICE lawyer and training instructor, revealed ICE training is “deficient, defective, and broken” and recruits are being directed to violate the Constitution; and

Whereas, A recent analysis from CNN found that ICE officers receive significantly less training than almost any other federal officer; and

Whereas, In a statement to CNN a former ICE recruit instructor noted that “they’re not being adequately trained for what they’re being tasked with”; and

Whereas, In a commentary from the Brookings Institution, the authors noted that ICE expansion has outpaced accountability; and

Whereas, American Immigration Council posted a similar notion in their article “How ICE Went Rogue” noting that agents are “routinely going far beyond what the law allows them to do. Their aggressive tactics on the ground are backed up by unprecedented interpretations of their legal authorities, with the agencies secretly adopting aggressive new policies toward entering homes and making arrests without judicial warrants”; and

Whereas, Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, ICE has been documented using excessive force, arresting and detaining United States (U.S.) citizens, and taking actions that seemingly violate constitutional protections; and

Whereas, ICE has made sweeping and violent arrests in courthouses taking immigrants with pending asylum cases and future court dates, ICE has been following an internal policy that says their officers do not require judicial warrants to enter someone’s home, and ICE has engaged in increasingly aggressive activity, such as smashing windows of cars and dragging out the drivers; and

Whereas, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have also been documented firing their weapons at bystanders, with two cases in Minnesota resulting in the deaths of Reneé Good and Alex Pretti; and

Whereas, Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been quick to claim these shootings to be justified and officers as acting appropriately, video evidence after the fact has shown officers acting irrationally and violently; and

Whereas, Cases of officers misrepresenting themselves or violently entering homes without judicial warrants have been seen across New York City; and

Whereas, According to a pending habeas complaint for Hayk Safaryan, a Brooklyn resident and Armenian immigrant, federal immigration authorities stormed into his home without a judicial warrant or consent to detain him; and

Whereas, In East Elmhurst, a woman named Jennifer and her four children were at home when federal agents burst inside their apartment without a warrant and without identifying themselves to look for someone who did not live at the residence; and

Whereas, The agents pointed guns at her and her children, dragged Jennifer outside by her hair, questioned the family for an hour, and left without taking anyone; and

Whereas, According to Columbia University, ICE entered their premises on false pretenses to detain a student, allegedly posing as police searching for a missing child; and

Whereas, The tactics and violence used by federal immigration authorities is deeply disturbing and must be addressed; and

Whereas, H.R.7284 introduced by U.S. House Representative Dan Goldman and pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, seeks to reform qualified immunity standards for officers and agents of ICE or CBP engaged in law enforcement activities, and for other purposes; and

Whereas, H.R.7284, also known as the ICE OUT Act, would amend Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983) to make immunity defense claims unavailable to ICE or CBP officers and agents if the facts alleged by a plaintiff would constitute excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and

Whereas, Americans in cities across the U.S., including New York City, have protested federal immigration enforcement activity and brought attention to the devastation caused by ICE and CBP actions to communities and families; and

Whereas, The Trump Administration continues to suggest that their agents are operating accordingly and the impunity with which federal immigration agents are acting have traumatizing results; and

Whereas, The ICE OUT Act would enable some accountability against agents that act in violation of Fourth Amendment rights and could provide some justice to those harmed by federal immigration actions; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the United States House of Representatives to pass, the United States Senate to introduce and pass, and the President to sign H.R.7284, also known as the ICE OUT Act, to reform qualified immunity standards for officers and agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection engaged in law enforcement activities, and for other purposes.

LS #21829

03/12/2026

RLB