New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that her office would deploy legal observers to document raids carried out by federal immigration authorities across the state, The New York Times reported.
The observers could be sent to where immigration raids are taking place to serve as "neutral witnesses on the ground," her office said in a release, adding that they would be instructed not to interfere with enforcement activity.
The initiative is intended to collect real-time information on immigration enforcement activity and determine whether federal agents are acting lawfully, her office said.
This is the first such action by an attorney general's office, according to Sophie Hamlin, a spokeswoman for James.
James, a Democrat, said in a statement that "we have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability.
"My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law."
Federal agents have clashed with activists in New York and elsewhere who have tried to record, protest, and confront Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting raids.
Officials nationwide have sought to preserve evidence of potential misconduct by agents after the Trump administration did not include local or state officials in Minnesota in probes of the shooting deaths in Minneapolis, according to The New York Times.
Over the past year, cellphone footage taken by bystanders has become one of the primary ways the Trump administration's deportation effort has come into focus, at times contradicting official federal accounts.
In New York, activists have regularly attended the city's immigration courts to record the arrests of migrants appearing for routine hearings.
In addition, residents and organizers have recently sought to document an increase in early-morning arrests in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, posting videos on social media.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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