Mayor Zohran Mamdani is threatening to sue federal immigration authorities over reports that ICE agents have been using city-owned parking lots in the Bronx and Queens to stage enforcement operations.
In a letter sent Monday, Mamdani demanded that the Department of Homeland Security immediately stop agents from using city property for immigration enforcement without permission, warning that New York City will take legal action if the activity continues.
His administration also announced new rules on Monday for Parks Department workers who encounter federal agents on city property.
The warning follows reports of ICE agents parking vehicles and holding meetings in unstaffed city-owned lots at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and along 111th Street on the western side of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens.
The Queens lots are next to a city-run preschool and several cultural institutions frequented by children. According to the mayor’s letter, ICE never received authorization from the city to use those properties for immigration enforcement.
“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 agent in a federal immigration court. Photo by Dean Moses
The letter — addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, acting ICE Director David Venturella and ICE New York Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo — calls on federal officials to issue guidance explicitly prohibiting agents from using city lots to stage or conduct enforcement operations.
Under an executive order Mamdani signed in February, non-city law enforcement agents are barred from using city-owned parking lots as staging grounds without a judicial warrant or another qualifying legal exception.
“Parking lots connected to City parks are reserved for the safe use and enjoyment of New Yorkers and visitors who wish to use our parks,” Mamdani wrote. “Use of these lots for other purposes, including ICE’s reported use of these lots, amounts to unauthorized activity on City property. Accordingly, you must immediately issue guidance to your agents prohibiting them from using any City lots to stage or conduct enforcement operations.”
Corporation Counsel Steven Banks said the administration is prepared to follow through on the legal threat if the activity continues.
“Now that the Department of Homeland Security is clearly on notice regarding its unauthorized use of city lots, there is no excuse for continuing to commandeer city property, and we are prepared to go to court if it does not stop,” said Banks.
The move comes less than three weeks after Mamdani and more than 100 elected officials urged private parking garage and lot owners to deny ICE access to their properties following the shooting of a man by federal immigration agents in Marble Hill.
The man was shot while his 5-year-old son was in the car. Federal agents had reportedly been staging operations from a private parking lot nearby.
At the time, Mamdani said city law already barred ICE from using municipal property as a base of operations and called on private property owners to stop providing agents with places to gather.
Mamdani’s new instructions for Parks workers
The administration’s new Parks Department policy spells out how employees should respond when federal agents seek access to city property, including parking lots and areas of parks not open to the public.
Under the rules, workers must ask federal officers seeking entry to nonpublic areas for identification and contact the department’s general counsel. If agents present a warrant, employees must send it to agency attorneys for review rather than determine its validity themselves.
Without a valid judicial warrant or other proper authorization, workers are instructed not to allow agents into restricted areas. If officers enter without authorization, employees must call 911 and document the encounter when safe to do so. They are also instructed not to physically or verbally confront officers.
The policy sets out separate procedures for public areas, where Parks employees are told to notify supervisors and agency attorneys if they observe federal law enforcement activity. Workers are also advised to document suspected staging operations, including the number of officers and vehicles involved, when feasible and safe.
If federal authorities request permission in advance to use a Parks parking lot as a staging area, the request must go to the agency’s general counsel, who will decide whether to grant access.
Employees who fail to follow the policy could face disciplinary action, including suspension or termination.
The guidance also advises Parks workers to consider providing people who encounter federal immigration agents with information about their rights and the city’s immigration legal assistance hotline after the encounter has ended.