New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says his incoming administration will resist efforts by President Donald Trump to expand his immigration crackdown to the country’s largest city.
Mamdani, who is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 1, told MS NOW senior political and national reporter Jacob Soboroff on Wednesday that if any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer sent by the president violates the city’s laws, “they should be held accountable.”
When Soboroff asked the incoming mayor whether that included the possibility of arresting ICE officers, Mamdani said that option was not off the table.
“For the law to have meaning, there has to be accountability for all of us, and that is something that is necessary to speak about, to talk about, to act on — no matter who we’re referring to,” he told Soboroff outside City Hall.
New York City’s sanctuary laws broadly bar local law enforcement from working with the federal government on immigration enforcement. Those laws were put in place to allow immigrants and undocumented individuals to report crimes and work with local officials without fear of deportation.
Mamdani said he will ensure the New York City Police Department will “not be assisting ICE in their immigration enforcement” and will hold those who violated the city’s laws to account.
For months, Trump has repeatedly threatened to send the National Guard into the city, home to the largest population of immigrants in the country. He has also pledged to expand ICE operations there.
Immigration raids have already ramped up. Masked officers have arrested suspected undocumented New Yorkers on the streets and detained migrants attending routine immigration appointments at 26 Federal Plaza.
In November, on the heels of his election victory, Mamdani traveled to Washington to sit down with Trump in the Oval Office. During the surprisingly cordial meeting, the two discussed immigration enforcement.
“I told the president that these kinds of raids that we’re seeing here in New York City, they’re cruel and inhumane and they do nothing to serve the interests of public safety,” Mamdani said of their conversation.
“What I also told the president is we have the NYPD here. We trust the NYPD to deliver that public safety. We do not need ICE and the National Guard to make that same case,” he added.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist said that after his inauguration, he would be speaking with the Trump administration and “making the case” that his city did not need federal intervention. Instead, Mamdani said residents need a “partnership” between local and federal officials, “that will actually keep New Yorkers safe.”
But that partnership may be off to a rocky start. Mamdani already clashed with administration officials earlier this week, after he released a video on social media explaining immigrants’ rights to refuse to speak to or comply with federal agents.
During an appearance on Fox News, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said his comments in that video may have “violated the Constitution.”
“We’re certainly going after and looking into all of that with coordination of the Department of Justice,” Noem told Sean Hannity on Monday.
Soboroff asked Mamdani if he was prepared for the possibility that he himself could be arrested for refusing to carry out the administration’s immigration enforcement.
“I’m prepared for any consequence that comes for standing up for New Yorkers, because that’s my job,” Mamdani said. “That’s what I ran to do.”
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