Mayor Mamdani threatens ICE with lawsuit over New York parking lots — The Guardian
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city may go to court against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if its agents continue using municipal parking lots to prepare or conduct immigration operations.
In a letter to the administration of President Donald Trump, Mamdani called the use of city property unauthorized and illegal. As The Guardian reports, he demanded that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE officials immediately instruct agents not to use New York City parking lots as bases for or to conduct operations. According to the mayor, this practice poses a danger to residents and causes fear among people using city property.
City Hall's position
Mamdani warned that New York City would take legal action to stop what he considers the unlawful use of municipal property. New York has been a sanctuary city for immigrants since the administration of Mayor Ed Koch in 1989.
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The Mamdani administration had previously criticized ICE's activities in the city and called for the agency to be abolished after an incident in which an ICE agent shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal while he was picking up his five-year-old child from school. Belgal's lawyers claimed that the agent was in plain clothes, did not identify himself, smashed the car windows, and fired several shots.
Federal authorities' response
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told The New York Times that ICE's presence in public parking lots is fully permitted under federal law and is a common law enforcement practice in the country.
The Mamdani administration and more than 100 elected New York officials also urged owners and operators of private garages and parking lots not to make their properties available to ICE for operations. In a separate letter dated October 15, Mamdani made the same request to more than a thousand parking lot owners and operators. The Trump administration recently lost a challenge to New York's sanctuary city laws, filed in July 2025.
