Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatened Monday to haul the Trump administration to court if ICE doesn’t stop its “unlawful commandeering” of city-owned property during immigration operations.
Hizzoner, in a letter to US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, warned that if the feds continued to park immigration vehicles in city parking lots, the Big Apple will haul them to court.
“ICE has not secured any authorization from the City to use these lots for immigration enforcement. To be clear: the City does not authorize ICE using its property in this manner,” the missive reads.
Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn Monday morning that “too often is ICE flouting those directives and those laws.”
“This letter makes very clear that ICE has no right to use any city property or lots for anti-immigrant operations, and that we are willing to go to court if they continue to do so,” he told reporters.
According to the letter, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have “reportedly parked their vehicles and conducted meetings in several City-owned, unstaffed parking lots, including in a parking lot at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and recently, in parking lots along 111th Street on the west side of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, right next door to a City-run preschool and several cultural institutions that children visit every day.”
Mamdani previously called on owners of garages across the city to stop allowing ICE to use their property to stage operations.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
