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In a rare rebuke from Mayor Eric Adams of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, New York City’s Law Department filed a legal brief Monday in support of a Bronx high school student detained by immigration authorities.
It was also a remarkable shift from the mayor’s previous efforts to distance himself from the case, as other local politicians condemned the arrest of 20-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras, a native of Venezuela who was detained after attending a routine immigration court date.
In a 17-page filing submitted to federal court in Western Pennsylvania, New York City’s Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant decried Dylan’s arrest as a “trap” that undermines faith in the court system. Dylan, who attended ELLIS Prep, a Bronx High School that caters to older newly arrived immigrants, is the first known case of a city public school student detained by immigration authorities during Trump’s second term.
“The tactics employed in Dylan’s case — using his appearance at court for a routine immigration hearing as an opportunity to detain him — threatens to deter people from accessing the court system on which local governance depends,” Goode-Trufant wrote. “The implications threaten to reach well beyond the immigration arena and reach the countless other matters affecting public welfare that require our residents to appear in court every day.”
The city’s legal filing comes as Dylan’s personal lawyers intensify their efforts to secure his release. Last week, lawyers from the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, filed a writ of “habeas corpus” asking a federal judge to order his release. On Monday, lawyers also sought a temporary restraining order in an effort to get him out of detention even quicker because of severe gastrointestinal-related medical issues.
Lawyers cited a medical expert who reviewed Dylan’s health records and testified that keeping Dylan in detention without access to specialists “will likely lead to significant morbidity and possibly death,” according to a legal filing.
Judge Stephanie Haines denied that request on Monday afternoon, according to a NYLAG spokesperson. But lawyers received news that Dylan passed an interview with an asylum officer to determine whether he has “credible fear” of returning to his country — staving off the risk of immediate deportation.
“While we are disappointed with today’s decision by the judge, we remain unwavering in our determination to fight for justice, due process and to bring Dylan home as soon as humanly possible,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are extremely heartened by the fact that Dylan successfully passed his credible fear interview, which is an important win for his case in recognizing his valid need for asylum relief.”
Dylan’s arrest, first reported by Chalkbeat last Monday, has become a high profile example of a new enforcement tactic that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents are using across the country. In an effort to boost deportations, federal government lawyers have moved to dismiss deportation proceedings, allowing agents to arrest unsuspecting immigrants on the spot in courthouses and thrust them into a fast-track deportation process with fewer legal protections. The enforcement blitz has picked up in Manhattan over the past week, prompting protests and denunciations from the city’s congressional representatives.
Officials from the Department of Homeland security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They previously criticized former President Joseph Biden’s policy allowing migrants like Dylan to enter the country and said “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”
The city’s intervention in Dylan’s case represents a dramatic about-face from Adams’ initial response last week. Asked about the arrest at a press conference last Tuesday, Adams repeatedly said federal immigration enforcement was not his concern, argued the arrest would not keep immigrants from using city services, and declined to commit to looking into Dylan’s case or pushing for his release.
Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus argued on the social media platform X that Adams “didn’t have all of the information” at the time.
In a statement Monday, Adams said Dylan “was going through the exact legal proceeding that we encourage new arrivals to go through in order to be able to work and provide for their families — and even accessed the center that we created for migrants to be able to avoid city shelters and become independent.
“But instead of being rewarded for following the law, he was punished for doing what we all asked him to do,” Adams continued.
Dylan’s mom Raiza, who asked to use only her first name for fear of retaliation, told Chalkbeat in Spanish that the city’s legal filing is “very good news.”
“I’m very grateful,” she said. “My son is not a criminal. He’s a student.”
City’s intervention marks a shift
The city’s friend-of-the-court brief marks one of the most direct rebukes from the Adams administration of Trump’s immigration policy — a topic that played a central role in the scandal that has enveloped Adams’ mayoralty. Adams faced federal corruption charges last year, but the Justice Department under Trump moved to dismiss the charges. One argument Trump’s Justice Department lawyers made for dismissing the case was that criminal proceedings would curtail Adams’ ability to help execute Trump’s immigration policies. Adams has expressed a desire to roll back the city’s “sanctuary” protections, including a longstanding agreement that kept ICE from operating on Rikers Island.
Dylan’s case — and Adams’ lack of involvement — drew a major outcry from local and national elected officials in the last week. Hundreds of supporters gathered at a rally last week to demand Dylan’s immediate release, with multiple local elected officials criticizing the mayor’s silence.
Adams faces a long-shot bid for reelection this year, and several of his challengers immediately issued statements criticizing Dylan’s detention and Adams’ response.
While Adams argued last week that the ICE courthouse enforcement blitz would not interfere with immigrant New Yorkers accessing city services, his lawyers made the opposite case in Monday’s legal brief.
The city has welcomed over 100,000 asylum-seekers in recent years and “has an obligation to ensure that those residing in its jurisdiction can access basic municipal services and continue contributing as members of our community while here,” the brief reads.
The new enforcement tactics “risk driving underground those otherwise inclined to follow the country’s immigration laws, undermining the very system that those laws are designed to serve,” according to the filing.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org
