New York, New York - A federal judge on Monday rejected an effort by President Donald Trump's administration to overturn a New York law that keeps ICE agents away from courthouses.

US District Judge Mae D'Agostino dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit that challenged the 2020 Protect Our Courts Act.

The DOJ lawsuit claimed that the act violated the US Constitution's "supremacy clause," which dictates that federal laws override those implemented at a state level.

D'Agostino argued in the ruling that the "supremacy clause" didn't apply because the state of New York was seeking to protect its "sovereign interests in the face of undue federal interference."

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"New York is not attempting to regulate federal agents, and it is not prohibiting the federal government from enforcing immigration law," the ruling reads.

"Rather, it is simply defining, as a proprietor, what activities are not permissible in state-owned facilities. Such conduct does not run afoul of the intergovernmental immunity doctrine."

State courthouses have become a target for ICE agents, who lurk in waiting for immigrants showing up for hearings on their cases and proceed to detain them.

In Manhattan, the halls of 26 Federal Plaza have become the site of numerous such arrests, with many of those detained kept in reportedly overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

In October, New York Attorney General Letitia James rolled out an online portal to track migrants arrests after ICE rounded people up in Chinatown as part of a major operation.