NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Mayor Zohran Mamdani demanded that federal immigration agents stop using city-owned property to stage enforcement actions, escalating his fight against ICE operations after an agent shot a Dominican man last month.
Mamdani plans to send a letter Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, asking them to direct agents to stop using city lots without authorization, according to his office.
ICE agents have used several locations to park vehicles and gather before operations, according to the mayor’s office. Mamdani said the city is prepared to sue the Trump administration if ICE continues the practice without permission.
“ICE has no right to use our property as a base for tearing families apart,” 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.”
The letter follows the Oct. 8 shooting of a man by an immigration officer during an operation in upper Manhattan as his 5-year-old son was nearby. The man, who was shot in the neck, survived.
Mamdani subsequently called on President Donald Trump to halt ICE enforcement in New York and ordered a review of the 24 hours surrounding the shooting, including agents’ use of a privately owned parking lot as a staging area.
Mullin defended the officer’s actions and rejected Mamdani’s call to halt immigration enforcement in the city.
Mamdani said on Monday he will address his letter to Mullin, acting ICE Director David Venturella and Kenneth Genalo, who leads ICE’s New York field office.
He cited locations including an unstaffed lot at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and lots along 111th Street beside Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. The Queens sites are next to a city-run preschool and the New York Hall of Science.
The Parks Department is also adopting new procedures for employees approached by ICE or other outside law enforcement officers seeking access to city property. The changes are among the latest steps taken by city agencies under Mamdani’s Executive Order 13, according to his office.
New York has spent $153 million on immigration legal services, more than any other US city, according to the Mamdani administration.
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