N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 29: Sensitive locations

§ 29. Sensitive locations. 1. Definitions. For purposes of this

section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) "Sensitive location" means a privately owned or operated:

(i) location of any program licensed, regulated, certified, funded, or

approved by the office of children and family services that provides

services to children, youth, or young adults, any legally exempt

childcare provider, a childcare program for which a permit to operate

such program has been issued by the New York city department of health

and mental hygiene pursuant to the health code of the city of New York;

(ii) health care facility, including a doctor's office, hospital, or

any location providing health or behavioral health services;

(iii) house of worship, which means any building or structure that a

reasonable person would know that religious adherents collectively

recognize as a place to regularly gather for or to hold religious

worship activities or provide religious education or instruction, such

as a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque;

(iv) housing accommodation;

(v) non-public school;

(vi) private school established under chapter eight hundred

fifty-three of the laws of nineteen hundred seventy-six, or

state-supported school established in accordance with article

eighty-five of the education law;

(vii) not-for-profit or for-profit higher education institution;

(viii) nursery school;

(ix) summer camp;

(x) senior center;

(xi) park, playground, athletic field, or recreation center; or

(xii) location being utilized as a polling place in connection with

the conduct of an election for an elected position in any government.

(b) "Deny access" means declining to grant permission to enter and

declining to facilitate the entry of an individual to a sensitive

location.

(c) "Housing accommodation" means any building, structure, or portion

thereof which is used or occupied or is intended, arranged, or designed

to be used or occupied, as the home, residence, or sleeping place of one

or more human beings.

(d) "Immigration enforcement" has the same meaning as such term is

defined in section three hundred nineteen of the executive law.

2. Sensitive locations for immigration enforcement. (a) A sensitive

location is empowered to adopt policies and/or procedures, to the

maximum extent allowable under law, to deny access to any portion of the

sensitive location that is not accessible to the general public to any

individual seeking access for the purposes of immigration enforcement.

Any such policy or procedure shall not overcome any circumstance in

which the individual seeking access for the purposes of immigration

enforcement presents a court order issued by a judge appointed pursuant

to Article III of the United States Constitution or a federal magistrate

judge appointed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 631, or a judicial warrant

issued by a judge appointed pursuant to Article III of the United States

Constitution or a federal magistrate judge appointed pursuant to 28

U.S.C. § 631 authorizing them to take into custody the person who is the

subject of such warrant or judicial order.

(b) A sensitive location shall not be liable under state law if it

adopts any policy or practice of denying, or chooses to deny, access to

any portion of a sensitive location that is not accessible to the

general public to any individual seeking access for the purposes of

civil immigration enforcement without presenting a court order issued by

a judge appointed pursuant to Article III of the United States

Constitution or a federal magistrate judge appointed pursuant to 28

U.S.C. § 631, or a judicial warrant issued by a judge appointed pursuant

to Article III of the United States Constitution or a federal magistrate

judge appointed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 631 authorizing them to take

into custody the person who is the subject of such warrant or judicial

order.

3. Enforcement. The attorney general, the office of immigrant trust in

the department of law, an individual, or the owner or operator of the

sensitive location, including a local or state governmental entity that

operates out of a sensitive location, may apply for an order to the

supreme court of the state of New York to obtain appropriate injunctive

and declaratory relief with respect to any violation of this section.

4. Nothing in this section shall be construed to exempt entities

covered by this article from the requirements of article fifteen-AA of

the executive law, section thirty-two hundred one-b of the education

law, and article nineteen-D of the general municipal law, if otherwise

applicable.

5. The provisions of this section shall apply notwithstanding any

other provisions of state or local law, charter, code, ordinance,

resolution, rule, or regulation to the contrary. Provided, however, that

nothing in this article shall be construed to prevent or restrict the

state government from adopting, enacting, or enforcing state policies or

a local government from adopting, enacting, or enforcing local policies,

laws, resolutions, ordinances, or regulations which comply with at least

the applicable standards or requirements of this section, or which

exceed the provisions of this section, or which further restrict the

ability of state government or local government personnel to participate

in immigration enforcement beyond the requirements set forth in the

chapter of the laws of two thousand twenty-six that added this section.