New York to create team of legal observers to document ICE raids

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 3 Feb 2026 17.19 EST
Last modified on Tue 3 Feb 2026 17.29 EST


New York is creating a team of legal observers that will don purple vests to monitor and record the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement officers as they seek to detain and deport migrants, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday.

The announcement follows weeks of sometimes violent tumult in Minneapolis, where Donald Trump has deployed thousands of armed, masked agents as he tries to deport more migrants than any of his predecessors.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, said the state’s new legal observers would be volunteer employees from her office, trained to observe, without interfering, whether Trump’s immigration enforcement “remains within the bounds of the law”.

“I am proud to protect New Yorkers’ constitutional rights to speak freely, protest peacefully, and go about their lives without fear of unlawful federal action,” James, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability.“

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/new-york-legal-observers-ice-raids

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Link to NY AG James PRESS RELEASE - Attorney General James Launches Legal Observation Project to Monitor Federal Immigration Enforcement in New York

[mysteryowl]

1. YES, this is what every city and state needs!

[womanofthehills]

2. Great news!

The hate for women is off the wall amongst ICE men. Throwing women around, stepping on their backs, pointing guns and a knife, etc
Creepy group of evil psychopaths.

Woman testifying about being shot 5 times and had to call 111 herself while bleeding.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=YZgyyp4w_z7vW3neKxa6cQ

[Martin68]

3. Every locality where ICE is conducting raids should do this.

[Karma13612]

4. Glad to hear this coming from AG James.

Up in the sleepy North Country of New York State (aka Northern New York), St Lawrence County has just approved of ICE coordinating with the St Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. On Monday of this week, They had a county meeting open to the public with a huge turn out of people wanting to speak. The legislators still voted it thru 11-4 (11 Republicans for and 3 Democrats and one Republican against).

Here is the story:

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/52960/20260203/st-lawrence-county-approves-sheriff-s-agreement-with-ice

I am So angry. But, if I understand correctly, they are limiting this involvement to just the “Jail model”. Hopefully we won’t see ICE goons roaming the streets of Canton and Potsdam. My theory is that the county legislators (the area is red ) wants to make sure they have the necessary means in place to go after the farm of Blake Gendebein who is running for NY-21 Congressional district. I can just bet that ICE and Border Patrol are salivating about finding any possible undocumented immigrants on his dairy farm in Lisbon NY- right in the heart of St Lawrence County. They want any advantage possible to screw over flipping the seat that Elise Stefanik has held for years now.

Gov Hochul has in the works a law that will ban local LE from coordinating with ICE. Aren’t we just the ‘lucky’ ones who fall thru the cracks. /s