NYPD cops ordered to limit cooperation with ICE agents after criticism over Ravi Ragbir arrest

The NYPD is issuing instructions to cops to limit their cooperation with immigration authorities, after criticism of how the department handled the high-profile arrest of an immigration rights activist this month.

Mayor de Blasio announced the new instructions Wednesday, which he said are codifying existing policy.

The order, which Police Commissioner James O’Neill has issued to all members of the NYPD, says cops can only coordinate with ICE when the citywide duty chief, after checking with lawyers, decides it’s necessary for public safety reasons.

In emergencies, the highest-ranking uniformed officer on the scene can make the call.

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Pols and advocates criticized the way the NYPD worked with ICE when the feds arrested Ravi Ragbir on Jan. 11, sparking large protests. The NYPD provided an escort to the federal agents detaining Ragbir as they took him to a hospital, and then as far as the Holland Tunnel as they were taking him to a detention center.

City agencies are also being formally prohibited from entering agreements where they are deputized by ICE to help with immigration enforcement.

“We have been very clear that that our police officers and employees will not be a part of a federal deportation force,” de Blasio said. “This new guidance reinforces that clear line.”

Critics say the policy doesn’t go far enough. Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) said escorts like the one given for Ragbir’s arrest after he left Bellevue Hospital should be barred.

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“There was no health emergency. He was leaving Bellevue. It was no longer an ambulance. And there was no public safety emergency. There were no protesters. There was no one there at all,” he said, He added the rules should change “not just so that it’s clear what officials have the right to authorize it, but that it isn’t done in cases like that.”

One cop who worked the Ragbir protest has also been transferred from the elite Strategic Response Group back to patrol.