Mamdani threatens legal action over reported ICE activity in Van Cortlandt Park

Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatened legal action if federal immigration agents continue operating from city-owned lots — including in Van Cortlandt Park.

Mamdani said in a Nov. 2 news release that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have reportedly parked vehicles in several unstaffed city-owned lots, also in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, near a preschool. Without city authorization, the operations are illegal, according to the mayor’s office. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security disputed this.

Mamdani sent a letter to DHS officials saying ICE’s use of city property endangers and sows fear among residents. He demanded the department tell its agents they are prohibited from using city lots to stage or conduct enforcement operations.

“ICE has no right to use our property as a base for tearing families apart,” Mamdani said. “If they keep coming back, we will see them in court.”

The mayor’s office did not respond by press time to questions on where the claims of ICE in Van Cortlandt Park originated or how they were verified.

The Van Cortlandt Park Alliance told The Press agents have been seen around public lots in the park and nothing currently prevents them from being there. Members were aware of authorities in the park “anecdotally,” but had not personally seen any ICE agents, the alliance said. The alliance also condemned ICE and said it agrees with the mayor.

The Press did not witness an ICE presence while visiting the park’s lots.

The mayor’s office also announced a new policy for the city’s department of parks and recreation workers if ICE attempts to access parks department property. Employees are instructed to ask for identification and a judicial warrant, and to get confirmation from the New York City Parks General Counsel before admitting agents to the site.

If parks department employees don’t comply, they may be suspended or fired, according to the policy. Parks department commissioner Tricia Shimamura commended the administration on the policy in a news release.  The department referred The Press to the release in response to questions on the matter.

A DHS spokesperson told The Press ICE’s presence in public parking lots is fully authorized under federal law, and is a standard practice nationwide.

“Mayor Mamdani should be grateful to our brave law enforcement officers for cleaning up the streets of NYC since he won’t,” the spokesperson said, adding that “no terminated parking will stop ICE from deporting criminal illegal aliens.”

The spokesperson also said it needs New York to cooperate with officers. But local and city law enforcement agencies aren’t allowed to enter agreements with the federal government that help carry out civil immigration enforcement, according to a law passed earlier this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

After Oscar Belgal was shot in the neck last month in Marble Hill by ICE agents, the 50th Precinct said they had no cooperation with the federal agency. Officers responded after the shooting and took Belgal to the hospital because an ambulance was delayed, The Press previously reported.

Advocates and officials believed ICE was operating from the Target parking lot on West 225th Street, a suspicion that had persisted in the months prior. Target previously told The Press it has no cooperative agreements with ICE, and was not aware of law enforcement operations at the Marble Hill location.

Local elected officials came out in support of Mamdani’s recent demands, and noted their own efforts to curb local ICE presence.

Kingsbridge Heights City Council member Pierina Sanchez said in the Nov. 2 release she has urged private parking lot owners to prohibit ICE from using their properties as staging grounds, and State Sen. Gustavo Rivera said he and neighbors have been organizing to warn the community about ICE in Van Cortlandt Park. Council member Eric Dinowitz told The Press it’s important for constituents to know elected officials have their back.

Marble Hill Council member Carmen De La Rosa said ICE has made its “violent presence” known in the district over the past year, and she is reassured by the mayor’s efforts, according to the release.

“ICE is not welcome in our city,” De La Rosa said. “Our municipal government must continue to make strategic and meaningful steps to protect New Yorkers against a fascist government that seeks to attack all that makes our city great.”