New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of violence, including the shooting death of a mother of three, coming out of Minnesota and other targets of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“I am in support of abolishing ICE. … What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist,” Mamdani said during an interview on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday.
The new mayor, who was sworn in Jan. 1, was asked where he stood following renewed calls from Democratic leaders to abolish ICE amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota.
Mamdani’s remarks came as Democratic lawmakers demanded more oversight over ICE after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an immigration agent earlier this month. A group of 53 House Democrats last week called for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
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An ICE officer shot Good at least three times in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis. The killing marked at least the fifth death tied to Trump’s immigration enforcement.
“We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead, what it’s doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, and no matter the facts of the case,” Mamdani said.
“I’m tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being dragged out of a car, dragged out of their home, dragged out of their life. What we need to see is humanity,” he added.
This past year the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration crackdown in Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.
A recent poll by CNN found that 51 percent of Americans feel that ICE tactics are making cities less safe. An Economist/YouGov poll released last week found that 46 percent of Americans support abolishing ICE, with 43 percent opposed on getting rid of the agency.
“There is a way to care about immigration in this city and this country with a sense of humanity. What we’re seeing from ICE is not it and we have not seen that from them in a long, long time.”
“It’s nice to have you here,” Whoopi Goldberg replied to Mamdani’s comments about ICE. “You make sense.”
Alyssa Vega can be reached at alyssa.vega@globe.com.