Mamdani warns of legal action over ICE use of New York City parking lots

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has threatened legal action against Immigration and Customs Enforcement over allegations that its agents are using city-owned parking lots to carry out operations. In a letter to the Trump administration, he said the city had not authorized the use of its property and would seek to stop it through legal action if it continued.

Mamdani argued that the activity was illegal, put residents in danger and created fear for people seeking to use city property. His letter asked the Department of Homeland Security and other ICE officials to immediately instruct agents that New York City parking lots could not be used to stage or conduct their operations.

The Department of Homeland Security disputed the mayor’s position. Responding to the letter, a department spokesperson told the New York Times that federal law fully authorized ICE’s presence in public parking lots and described such use as standard practice for law enforcement agencies across the country. The spokesperson also criticized Mamdani, saying he should be grateful to officers for their work.

The dispute comes amid broader disagreements between Mamdani’s administration and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement in New York. The city’s sanctuary status dates to 1989, during Mayor Ed Koch’s administration. The Trump administration recently lost a legal challenge against the city’s sanctuary laws that it had filed in July 2025.

Mamdani’s administration has also called for ICE to be abolished following the shooting of Oscar Belgal, 28, by an ICE officer while Belgal was picking up his five-year-old child from school. The administration has criticized federal immigration enforcement activity in the city.

According to Belgal’s lawyers, the officer was dressed in plainclothes and did not identify himself before approaching Belgal’s car. They alleged that the agent ran toward the vehicle, smashed its windows and fired several shots inside.

Alongside its demands concerning public property, the Mamdani administration and more than 100 elected officials in New York have urged private parking garage owners and operators to bar ICE from using their premises for city operations.

In an October 15 letter addressed to more than a thousand garage owners and operators, Mamdani said residents should not have to fear a nearby parking lot becoming a staging area for an operation that could put their community at risk. He urged recipients neither to rent nor lend their property to ICE.