Zohran Mamdani isn’t wasting any time getting the city’s defenses shored up, as federal immigration enforcement intensifies across the country and makes way to the boroughs.
In his thirteenth executive order since taking office, the mayor’s first on immigration outlines a fairly comprehensive disposition towards the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its violent and, in the case of two American citizens shot and killed in Minnesota over the last few weeks, deadly interactions with civilians and local agencies.
The order bans federal agents and “non-city” law enforcement from using garages and vacant lots owned by the city, prohibits them from entering city-owned properties—like schools, shelters, parking lots, and hospitals—without a warrant, and requires city agencies—including the New York Police Department, the Department of Correction, the Department of Probation, the Department of Social Services, and the Administration for Children’s Services—to audit their policies on interactions with ICE, and make public whatever changes were necessary.
It also requires each agency to appoint a dedicated privacy officer within 14 days of its February 6 signing, and, separately, calls for the creation of an “Interagency Response Committee,” effectively acting as a task force preparing and strategizing a city-wide response to any local escalations of federal immigration crackdowns. Deputy Mayor Deal Fuleihan will lead the committee, which already includes the city’s chief council Ramzi Kassem and Bitta Mostofi, who was the city’s chief immigration officer under Bill de Blasio and currently serves as special advisor to Fuleihan. Its ranks will be filled with senior operations managers from all city agencies by the end of this week. “There’s just been this radical shift at the federal level in what is perceived as acceptable enforcement operations, which we have seen across the country violate people’s rights [and] certainly push the bounds of what we believe to be good for New York and good for New Yorkers,” Mostofi told Gothamist, referring to recent ICE incidents in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
“This order is a sweeping reaffirmation of our commitment to our immigrant neighbors. We have also prepared 30,000 guides to New Yorkers’ rights in 10 languages spoken by some of the most heavily targeted populations in our city, teaching our neighbors what to do if ICE comes for them,” Mamdani said during the executive order’s signing at the annual Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library branch in Bryant Park. Those guides can be found as fliers and booklets in 10 languages all over the city.
The post Mamdani Braces for Immigration Crackdowns, Targets ICE with Executive Order appeared first on BKMAG.
