New York lawmakers decided not to pass immigration reforms this session as the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state law that blocks immigration officials from detaining people in or around courthouses.

The lawsuit alleges the law enacted in 2020, known as the Protect Our Courts Act, obstructs federal law enforcement from detaining undocumented people — an action they have legal authority to do.

“Lawless sanctuary city policies are the root cause of the violence that Americans have seen in California, and New York State is similarly employing sanctuary city policies to prevent illegal aliens from apprehension,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law.”

The department filed the suit the same day House Republicans grilled Gov. Kathy Hochul about the state's immigration policies on Capitol Hill.  

The law shields people from being detained to and from the courthouse. Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been known to detain people when they arrive for a court proceeding.

"We want people to go to court, whether it's paying a parking ticket or being a witness to a crime," said Solages, a Democrat who sponsored the law. "...We don't have the ability to stop what happens in federal court, but this law protects our state courts."

Solages, who chairs the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, said the law protects victims of a crime seeking justice, and it improves public safety to ensure people will show up for their court proceedings.

State leaders have a right to decide how to protect New Yorkers, she said. 

"It's been in law for several years — it's working," Solages said. "For the DOJ just to come down and try to take away our ability to have our own laws, it's really a threat to our Constitution and our autonomy as a state to operate and protect our citizens."

Republican lawmakers say it's a victory to have a challenge to the immigration policies pushed by Democrats who control the state Legislature.

Assemblyman Jarett Gandolfo sponsors a bill that would require all law enforcement in the state to cooperate with ICE, and notify federal immigration officials any time they detain an immigrant without legal status. The proposal, called Laken's Law, is named for Laken Riley — a college student who was murdered by an immigrant without legal status last year.

"By allowing federal authorities to make those arrests on the way to the courthouse, or on the way back in to the courthouse, it's safer for law enforcement officers because they have a controlled environment," Gandolfo told Spectrum News 1 on Friday. 

New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said the suit is a federal power grab with grave potential for harm, and people having access to the court is a fundamental constitutional right that upholds the nation's justice system.

"If defendants are afraid to go to court, if plaintiffs are afraid to go to court, well then, we don't have a system of justice," Lieberman added.

But Albany Law School professor Vin Bonventre said the federal government has a strong legal argument that has a chance of overturning New York's law because the federal government has constitutional, legal authority to arrest people who are in the country illegally or have committed crimes.

"The state cannot stop the federal government from doing what the federal government is legally allowed to do," he said, adding he doubts the case would make it to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“I can’t imagine a federal judge saying, ‘yes, the state is allowed to do this,'" Bonventre said.

A spokesperson for state Attorney General Letitia James said she is ready to defend the policy.

“Immigrants make New York great," the spokesperson said in a statement. "The Protect Our Courts Act ensures every New Yorker can access our courts and pursue justice without fear, because due process means nothing if people are too afraid to appear in court. Attorney General James will proudly defend this law and all of New York's laws, just as she will continue to defend the rights and dignity of all who call New York home.”