NEW YORK, N.Y. — Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned the Department of Homeland Security on Monday that New York City will go to court if immigration agents keep using city-owned park lots in the Bronx and Queens as staging areas.
The mayor laid out the demand in a letter to three federal officials: Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary; David Venturella, who is serving as acting ICE director; and Kenneth Genalo, who runs the ICE field office in New York. It asks federal officials to issue guidance barring agents from using any city lot to stage or carry out enforcement work.
One of the lots is at Van Cortlandt Park. The others line 111th Street at the western edge of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, close to a preschool the city operates and to museums and other attractions popular with families. The mayor wrote that ICE never got the city permission to use either location, and he described the use as illegal and a source of fear for residents.
Since February, a Mamdani executive order has barred outside law enforcement agencies from using city parking lots as staging grounds unless they have a judicial warrant or another legal exception. Corporation Counsel Steven Banks said the city is ready to sue if the activity does not stop. The Department of Homeland Security responded that ICE use of public lots is allowed under federal law and is routine for police agencies across the country.
The administration also issued new rules Monday for Parks Department employees. Workers who meet federal agents trying to get into nonpublic areas must ask for identification and call the department general counsel, pass any warrant to agency lawyers, call 911 if agents enter without authorization, and avoid confronting them. District Council 37, the union for many Parks workers, backed the approach.
The letter follows an Oct. 15 appeal from the mayor and more than 100 elected officials urging private garage and lot owners across the city to turn ICE away.
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