New York Mayor Mamdani Warns ICE to Stop Using City Lots or Face Legal Action

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on November 2 demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately stop using city-owned property to stage immigration enforcement operations without authorization, warning that the city will take legal action if agents continue. The letter was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella and ICE New York Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo. (Photo: file image related to Mamdani's earlier parking-lot letter.)

The lots named

The mayor's office said ICE agents have reportedly parked vehicles and held meetings in several unstaffed city-owned lots, including a lot at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and lots along 111th Street on the west side of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. Mamdani wrote that the use was “unauthorized and is therefore illegal, endangers city residents, and sows fear among those who seek to access city property.”

New Parks policy announced the same day

Alongside the letter, the administration announced a new NYC Parks policy for frontline workers, strengthening the procedures Parks employees must follow when non-local law enforcement, including ICE, seeks access to non-public and public areas of Parks property. The mayor's office said that under Executive Order 13, the administration has been working with city agencies to update policies on non-local law enforcement attempts to gain access to city property.

Federal pushback, and the sanctuary-city backdrop

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back, saying ICE's presence is fully authorized under federal law. New York has described itself as a sanctuary city since the administration of Mayor Ed Koch in 1989, limiting how far local government cooperates with federal immigration enforcement. Tensions have sharpened in recent months: last month an ICE officer shot Oscar Belgal, 28, as he was collecting his five-year-old child from school. The Mamdani administration has criticized federal immigration activity in the city and called for ICE to be abolished. The November 2 letter follows an October 16 letter in which Mamdani and more than 100 officials asked private parking-lot owners not to lend space to ICE; the new letter is a direct warning over city-owned property itself.

Sources: NYC Mayor's Office (2026-11-02), Bloomberg Law, The Guardian.