Mayor Zohran Mamdani is demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement immediately stop using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations, threatening legal action if the agency does not comply.
According to a news release from the mayor’s office, ICE’s use of the properties is “unauthorized and therefore illegal.” Mamdani sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other ICE officials demanding that agents leave the city-owned lots.
“ICE has no right to use our property as a base for tearing families apart. That goes for every park and every lot this City owns. This unauthorized use of City property must end now,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Today, I’m telling DHS to order its agents off our lots. If they keep coming back, we will see them in court.”
ICE agents have parked vehicles and held meetings in unstaffed lots, including a lot at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and lots on the west side of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, near a preschool and cultural institutions, according to Mamdani’s office.
The administration also announced a new NYC Parks policy Monday for frontline workers, strengthening procedures for responding to attempts by nonlocal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to access these locations.
Mamdani’s response to ICE enforcement comes after the fatal ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill last month.
“No family in New York should fear that going to the park or walking through their neighborhood could mean being torn away from their loved ones,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I am deeply disturbed by reports that ICE is using public property to carry out aggressive immigration enforcement operations.”
Earlier this year, Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act into law, prohibiting state and local law enforcement agencies from agreeing to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement.