ALBANY, N.Y. – Today, Senator Patricia Fahy (D–Albany) and Assemblymember Tony Simone (D—NYC) introduced the Immigration Enforcement RADAR (Reporting of Arrests, Detentions, Actions, and Removals) Act (S.XXXX Fahy/A.XXXX Simone), which would require New York State to create a public, online dashboard disclosing data on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and immigration officials’ activity across the state.

Despite a massive surge in ICE enforcement, New York currently has no centralized tracking mechanism to publicly track where, and how often, ICE and immigration officials operate. This legislation requires the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), in collaboration with state agencies and local enforcement organizations, to maintain a dashboard reporting anonymized, aggregated ICE data.

“When enforcement happens in secret and federal agents engage in secret police paramilitary-style tactics, it erodes the public’s trust and undermines law enforcement,” said Senator Patricia Fahy (D—Albany). “By making this critical data public, we are giving communities, community organizations, researchers, and policymakers the tools to spot troubling patterns, whether in enforcement itself, in contracts between ICE and local facilities, or in how detainers are handled. You can’t address what you can’t measure; and this legislation is key to understanding the scope and scale of ICE’s activities in New York State, and making this information available to the public will help to restore the trust that’s been lost as a result of this federal government’s overreaches and inhumane tactics.”

This data includes regularly updated information on immigration officials’ detainer requests (issued, honored, or declined), local arrests, transfers to federal custody, removal statistics, and more, with protections for personal identity in line with federal and state privacy laws, including geographic visualization tools.

Critically, the bill encourages DCJS to work with academic institutions and nonprofits for data validation, methodological transparency, and public engagement. Additionally, this bill requires DCJS to issue an annual report summarizing trends, policy implications, and recommendations for improvements to the dashboard.

This legislation comes at a time of intensifying ICE activity in New York State communities. For example, ICE arrests in New York City surged 46% in May 2025 compared to the same period last year, with the number of non-criminal arrests rising sharply. Venturing further Upstate, ICE detentions in county jails have “exploded,” in 2025, increasing six-fold compared to 2024. Additionally, the majority of arrests and detentions in major cities this year have been of non-criminal individuals, underscoring the importance of collecting this data.

This legislation is first-in-the-nation; only Illinois has taken steps to centrally track and analyze ICE’s activities in the state as part of the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’. However, critically, that information is not publicly available. Mobile applications this year were created by individuals to publicly track ICE activity, however, they were removed from the Apple and Android stores following pressure from the Trump administration.

From January through July 2025, New York City alone received 6,025 ICE detainer requests, a more than 400% increase over prior years. In a dramatic five-day enforcement sweep in March 2025, ICE and its federal partners arrested 133 people across Upstate New York, many in Albany, Syracuse, and other communities. Additionally, with the help of local law enforcement, Nassau County has detained more than 3,000 people just this year.

“Weaponized federal agents are waging war on our fellow New Yorkers – we must create the tools necessary to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our state,” said Assemblymember Tony Simone (D – Manhattan). “This first in the nation legislation will empower our communities to protect our fellow immigrant New Yorkers. For too long we have been putting the burden of resistance on every day New Yorkers, it is well past time for the state to step up and stand on the front lines of this battle.”

Both Senator Fahy and Assemblymember Simone introduced the MELT Act (S.8462 Fahy/A.8908 Simone) earlier this year, which would ban the use of face coverings and masks during civil immigration enforcement, arrests, and actions.

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