Audit: ICE Entered Hospitals and City Buildings

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on May 22 released a citywide audit of how New York agencies handle encounters with federal immigration authorities, saying the review found repeated gaps in protocols as ICE intensified enforcement activity across the city. The report said federal officers had targeted city shelters, entered some facilities without judicial warrants or clear authorization, and used what the administration called increasingly aggressive and misleading tactics. City Hall said the review covered the Administration for Children’s Services, Department of Correction, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Probation, Department of Social Services, NYPD and New York City Health + Hospitals. The administration said those agencies will now revise guidance and training under Executive Order 13, which Mamdani signed on February 6. ### What did the audit actually find inside city facilities? The May 22 report said local laws and agency protocols had “largely worked as intended,” but it also documented incidents that exposed breakdowns in how city staff handled federal agents. City Hall said the audit found immigration authorities had intensified their targeting of city shelters and sharply increased detainer requests to the Department of Correction and NYPD. Gothamist reported in December 2025 that federal immigration officers entered private areas of New York City shelters or obtained resident information without presenting judicial warrants at least five times earlier that year, citing official incident reports written by shelter staff. In two cases, Gothamist said, staff allowed officers into private shelter areas; in two others, officers bypassed front-desk staff and entered without permission. ### Where do hospitals fit into this review? New York City Health + Hospitals was one of the agencies included in the audit released by City Hall on May 22. Executive Order 13, signed February 6, says non-local law enforcement cannot access non-public areas of city property without a judicial warrant, except when city personnel authorize entry or in an emergency; City Hall has separately said the order covers hospitals, shelters and schools. Gothamist reported in March that an ICE agent at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens in January 2025 was initially refused entry, but was later escorted upstairs by a hospital police officer and an administrator to serve a patient with a notice to appear in immigration court. The report, based on an internal document obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, said the patient spoke Spanish and it was unclear whether he understood the English-language notice. ### How much did ICE activity increase? The audit said ICE arrested 5,567 people in the New York City area between January 20, 2025, and March 10, 2026. City Hall said that was a 71% increase from the same number of days at the end of the previous administration. The report said more than half of those arrests took place at immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza. Patch reported in February that immigration arrests in the New York City area had risen from roughly 2,300 in late 2023 to more than 5,000 by mid-October 2025, based on a review of federal data. ### What rules is the city relying on? Executive Order 13, issued February 6, directs mayoral agencies to cooperate with an interagency review of how city workers handle federal immigration enforcement. The order cites New York City Administrative Code section 4-210, which bars non-local law enforcement from entering non-public areas of city property, including shelters and schools, without a judicial warrant unless city personnel authorize it or there is an emergency. City Hall said the audit was meant to test whether those rules were being followed in practice. The mayor’s office said the findings led agencies to identify changes to policies, protocols and training. ### What changes come next? The May 22 release said agencies will implement the audit’s recommendations “in the coming months.” City Hall said those steps include updated protocols governing interactions with federal immigration agents and stronger protections for immigrant New Yorkers. Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Faiza N. Ali said in the release that the findings were intended to strengthen “transparency, accountability, and protections” for immigrant communities. The next formal milestone is implementation by the agencies named in the audit — including DSS, NYPD and Health + Hospitals — under the framework set out in Executive Order 13.