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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s latest anti-ICE efforts come perilously close to outright obstruction of justice.
Federal law may not require state and local cooperation with immigration enforcement, but the mayor’s now actively working to block it.
“Make it known to ICE that it is not authorized to use your garages and lots,” implores Mamdani in a draft letter asking city garage and parking lot owners to block the agency from using their property — and any letter from the mayor to a private business comes with an implied threat of City Hall disfavor to those who defy him.
The letter was plainly inspired by last week’s arrest of illegal immigrant Oscar Belgal, which prompted both renewed lefty calls for the head of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch as well as fury at the owners of the Bronx parking garage where ICE agents stage for enforcement work.
Since he’s not firing Tisch, Mamdani’s throwing his progressive pals some other bones, including this letter.
In it, he warns that giving “ICE a launching point for operations that have terrified and terrorized local communities” risks “placing your property, your employees, and your customers at the center” of those actions.
This is no friendly advice; it’s a threat — who wants City Hall’s anger, especially a City Hall that’s openly organizing “community activists”?
You could be targeted for protests and boycotts, and face increased scrutiny by city agencies (Nice permit you’ve got there . . .).
Public protests forced the Hudson River Park Trust to cut its contract with ICE for parking spaces at Pier 40 last June.
Garages are subject to city regulations on structural safety and building codes; they face periodic engineering inspections; many outdoor parking lots need licenses from the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
OK: The courts might find Mamdani’s letter doesn’t rise to the level of criminal obstruction, but it certainly escalates conflicts with the feds that don’t serve the city well.
ICE is now focused on scooping up migrant killers, rapists, and violent felons who have no right to walk our streets; forcing the feds to do this work the hardest possible way not only protects the worst of the worst, it makes enforcement hit harder on the community.
Then again, if the mayor cared about that, he’d be doing everything in his power to help the feds do their jobs — not pulling out the stops to interfere.