New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has warned the Trump administration that the city may sue if Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues using municipal parking lots for enforcement operations without permission.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, acting ICE Director David Venturella and the agency’s New York field office Director Kenneth Genalo, Mamdani said he was “deeply troubled” by reports that federal agents were using city property as a staging area. He argued that the use was unauthorized and illegal.
“If your agents continue any unauthorized use of these lots, New York City will take legal action to prevent this unlawful commandeering of City property,” Mamdani wrote. He also said the reported activity could put residents at risk and discourage people from using city facilities.
The letter says ICE agents have parked vehicles and held meetings at several unstaffed city lots. Among them are 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. The latter area is next to a city-run preschool and cultural institutions that welcome hundreds of children and families each day.
Mamdani said the city had not authorized ICE to use the lots for immigration enforcement. He called on the agency to immediately instruct its agents not to use city parking areas to stage or conduct operations.
Parking lots associated with city parks, he wrote, are meant for people visiting and using the parks. Using them for other purposes, including the reported ICE activity, amounts to unauthorized use of city property.
Mamdani said New York would continue using lawful means to protect immigrant communities and help residents access city services without fear. The Department of Homeland Security was asked to comment.
Last month, Mamdani and other New York Democrats urged private parking lot owners to keep ICE from using their properties. In a letter to owners and operators, the mayor asked them not to rent out, lend or otherwise make their lots available as staging areas for enforcement operations.
More than 100 elected officials signed that October letter, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York.
Mamdani has also called for ICE to be abolished. He renewed that position after an ICE agent fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston in July, and after another agent shot and wounded Dominican national Oscar Belgal during an enforcement operation in New York City last month.
