Mamdani ramps up NYC immigrant protections against Trump crackdown

By Myles Miller

 

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order strengthening protections for immigrants against federal enforcement, bolstering the city’s existing sanctuary policies with a series of new restrictions.  

The order prohibits federal agents from using city parking lots and garages as staging areas or operations bases unless they have a judicial warrant. It also establishes an interagency committee to coordinate citywide crisis response and prohibits sharing New Yorkers’ private data with US immigration authorities without legal justification. 

 

“Day after day, we bear witness to cruelty that staggers the conscience,” Mamdani said Friday at an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library. “Masked agents paid by our own tax dollars violate the Constitution and visit terror upon our neighbours.”

 

Mamdani is reinforcing efforts to shield immigrants as President Donald Trump’s crackdown stokes a national uproar, which intensified last month after federal agents shot and killed two US citizens during protests in Minneapolis. The mayor, a democratic socialist known for his progressive policies, added that the order will ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents present judicial warrants before entering city property, including hospitals and schools. 

 

The new measures formalise the “Trump-proofing” strategy Mamdani laid out in December, when he released a video urging undocumented immigrants to refuse entry to immigration enforcement agents, remain silent and legally record any encounters. 

 

At the interfaith meeting, Mamdani’s office distributed pamphlets in multiple languages to faith leaders to help their congregations understand what to do if ICE agents arrive. His order also directs the New York Police Department, Department of Correction and Department of Probation to complete 90-day audits of their immigration enforcement policies.

 

New York City has maintained sanctuary policies since the 1980s, when Mayor Ed Koch barred city agencies from sharing immigrant information with federal authorities except in criminal cases. While those protections have been upheld by subsequent mayors and codified into law, they primarily restricted information-sharing and cooperation with ICE detainer requests. 

 

Mamdani’s order covering the use of physical infrastructure and establishing coordinated crisis response mechanisms isn’t typically found in most of the more than 200 US cities and counties with sanctuary policies.

 

At the state level, New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week proposed a new state law limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration officials. Hochul’s proposal would overturn provisions allowing federal agencies to deputize local police and bar municipal jails from ICE detention use.