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<\/p>\nIan F. Blair is a writer and editor in New York City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The October 8<\/span> shooting of Oscar Belgal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in front of his 5-year-old son in Manhattan forced into the open a question that had been on many New Yorkers\u2019 minds: What would the New York Police Department do when ICE broke the \u201crule of law\u201d in the city, and how would Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the person who has the power to hire and fire the NYPD commissioner, respond?\u00a0<\/p>\n Shortly after the shooting, Mamdani addressed the incident with an appropriate amount of outrage, declaring<\/a> ICE \u201crotten to its core,\u201d and calling for the department to be abolished. His frustration was visible, but he was much less expressive when it came to his appraisal of the city\u2019s response to the situation. He had nothing substantive to discuss with respect to his police department\u2019s involvement, despite NYPD officers arriving on the scene only to find unidentified ICE agents holding guns, wearing plain clothes and disguises and masks<\/a>, in apparent violation of federal laws requiring<\/a> identification. (A recently passed New York state law prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks and other face coverings was temporarily blocked<\/a> by a judge.) NYPD officers applied first aid and transported Belgal to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen hospital.<\/p>\n According to many eyewitness accounts<\/a> and widely circulated video<\/a>, members of the NYPD appeared to assist ICE agents by forcefully helping with crowd control \u2014 at one point, an NYPD officer shoved congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, whom Mamdani personally stumped<\/a> for, to the ground. Later, NYPD cleared a path<\/a> for federal agents to whisk Belgal away from the hospital to a federal detention facility downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the shooting, the Democratic Socialists of America<\/a>, several legislators<\/a>, and Avila Chevalier<\/a> all called on Mamdani to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and demanded the mayor uphold his campaign pledge to disband the NYPD\u2019s infamous<\/a> Strategic Response Group. Mamdani repeatedly refused to fire Tisch but said he was reviewing<\/a> the 24-hour period around the shooting. When asked directly about Avila Chevalier being thrown to the ground, the mayor called it unacceptable<\/a>, saying, \u201cThat is not something I will look to justify.\u201d He reminded New Yorkers to be patient with efforts to reform the NYPD, ordered a review of the department\u2019s use-of-force policies, and added funding for the inspector general\u2019s office. But once again, he stood<\/a> by his commissioner, citing \u201cher record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city.\u201d<\/p>\n Noticeably absent from any of Mamdani\u2019s public remarks about the NYPD or Tisch was any public acknowledgment of the NYPD officers in relation to ICE agents during the Belgal incident. <\/p>\n Federal and city law enforcement occupy similar spaces but never really interact with each other. Mamdani made no mention of the ways in which the actions of federal agents put pressure on the NYPD as mediators<\/em> \u2014 the primary function of police \u2014 to liaise in moments of conflict. <\/p>\n The NYPD typically relishes this role, which is why the department consumes so much of New York\u2019s budget and shuns any attempts to redirect funds to other services that might reduce the need for police mediation to begin with. ICE forces local police to make choices in policy and in practice about how to deal with violent (often illegal) immigration operations.<\/p>\n If the NYPD believes itself to be the thin blue line, on which side of order and chaos do New York\u2019s force and Mamdani believe these federal outside agitators to be?<\/p>\n When it comes to ICE, Mamdani\u2019s rhetoric and policies haven\u2019t always aligned, which has opened him up to questions about the kind of mayor he really is.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n This omission \u2014 or evasion, depending on how you look at it \u2014 of this predicament is strange considering Mamdani\u2019s willingness to speak with moral clarity about even the most contentious issues<\/a> and confront them head-on. It\u2019s also bizarre considering his penchant for weaving shared experiences together and for putting the lived experiences of New Yorkers front and center. <\/p>\n On the campaign trail, one of Mamdani\u2019s most alluring traits was his ability to speak to the actual problems of everyday residents<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t just because he possessed once-in-a-generation oratory skills; candidate Zohran achieved this because, as a proud democratic socialist, there was an analysis \u2014 an explanation of the material conditions of life \u2014 baked into his politics. His rhetoric seemed in line with, or at least not alienated from (see: establishment Democrats), how fast reality was moving and how it was impacting the lives of everyday New Yorkers.<\/p>\n Many have pointed out that Mamdani seems to be engaging in realpolitik<\/a> in an effort to get his extensive progressive agenda passed. But it\u2019s equally important to note that all political tradeoffs are made in response to the political realities of the moment. So perhaps one should expect the calculations of a gifted politician like Mamdani to be more responsive to the material circumstances of New York as they are now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When it comes to ICE, however, Mayor Mamdani\u2019s rhetoric and policies haven\u2019t always aligned, which has opened him up to questions about the kind of mayor he really is. On one hand, he has shown that he will speak out against Trump\u2019s fascist and inhumane immigration efforts. On the other hand, Mamdani hasn\u2019t moved with the same level of force as his words. Many have pointed out that Mamdani seems to be engaging in realpolitik in an effort to get his extensive progressive agenda passed. It\u2019s certainly not easy to bring the machine of the New York government up to speed while also being transparent about the ways in which he is moving the needle. But that\u2019s exactly what he was elected to do.<\/p>\n Had Mamdani got into office and done nothing different than previous mayors \u2014 or even been exceptionally corrupt<\/a>, pro-cop<\/a>, and willing to help the Trump administration<\/a> like predecessor Eric Adams \u2014 he might have been able to avoid his current moment of reckoning. But his administration\u2019s genuine efforts on immigration set into motion a future where the NYPD and ICE would come into conflict. <\/p>\n One of Mamdani\u2019s first moves as mayor was to take stock of how the city\u2019s many agencies were upholding existing sanctuary city laws.\u00a0In February 2026, he signed Executive Order 13<\/a>, his first major order pertaining to immigration, to create the Mayor\u2019s Office of Immigrant Affairs and establish baseline guidance, such as explicitly prohibiting ICE and other non-local law enforcement agencies from using city-owned garages and vacant lots<\/a>. Crucially, EO 13 also required an audit of several agencies, including NYPD, to review their immigration-related policies.<\/p>\n NYPD already has a problematic history dealing with immigration enforcement. During the Adams administration, there were documented cases where the NYPD assisted or collaborated with immigration enforcement, sometimes in accordance with NYPD policies. A December 2025 report<\/a> by Jocelyn Strauber, then-commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, found at least one incident in which \u201can officer violated local law by providing assistance to federal authorities in connection with enforcement of the federal civil immigration law,\u201d as well as evidence that NYPD did \u201cnot fully comply with documentation and reporting requirements concerning requests for assistance with federal civil immigration enforcement.\u201d The report also found that there were numerous examples of NYPD policies and practices that elevated the \u201crisk of improper information sharing or assistance to federal authorities for purposes of civil immigration enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n The resulting audit<\/a>, which was released on May 22 by Mamdani\u2019s deputy mayor, built on those findings and recommended NYPD (and other city agencies) update its reporting requirements. But the audit also left a lot of open questions<\/a>, which numerous legal advocates attested to, about areas in which NYPD protocols and policies keep avenues open to potentially collaborate with ICE. The NYPD was \u201cnot being held to a high standard of accountability or scrutiny for collusion,\u201d the audit found, and there were significant \u201cgaps\u201d in documenting potential violations of department policies. The question of what the city and its mayor could do to ensure compliance also remained unanswered.<\/p>\n Sanctuary laws prohibit using city resources for immigration enforcement, and a January 2025 NYPD internal memo<\/a> specifically barring officers from facilitating street closures to enable immigration enforcement seemed to solidify that directive. But several high-profile incidents involving the NYPD have tested the department\u2019s compliance with sanctuary laws. In October 2025, before Mamdani was elected, during an immigration raid in Chinatown, eyewitnesses and viral videos showed NYPD officers establishing perimeters to create a path for federal law enforcement agents. In another instance in May 2026, ICE reportedly \u201cdragged\u201d a Nigerian immigrant out of a Brooklyn hospital after agents used force in his arrest; NYPD officers brutalized and arrested<\/a> numerous protesters and cleared debris from the road to enable ICE to escape the crowds and abscond with their target.<\/p>\n When the NYPD arrives at an ICE raid or at a protest against an immigration abduction, what are officers supposed to do?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Both of these incidents happened under the watch of Tisch, who has insisted again<\/a> and again<\/a> that the department follows all sanctuary laws. When asked about the Brooklyn incident, Mamdani insisted<\/a> NYPD was responding to 911 calls about the protest, not helping ICE. \u201cOur laws leave nothing, no room for interpretation about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement,\u201d he said. NYPD told the Guardian US<\/a>: \u201cUpon arrival, officers observed numerous individuals acting in a disorderly manner, obstructing vehicular traffic, and blocking emergency entrances and exits at Wyckoff Heights medical center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When the NYPD arrives at an ICE raid or at a protest against an immigration abduction, what are officers supposed to do? On this point, NYPD and Mamdani have offered little clarity. But October 8 doesn\u2019t pass the smell test for anyone who lives in overpoliced neighborhoods or closely observes the activity of police and their behavior.<\/p>\n NYPD officers were responding to an unrelated call nearby when they heard the report of shots fired. When they arrived, they encountered several men in various forms of attire, including some in construction-style vests<\/a>, face masks, and at least one carrying a long gun, which officer body camera footage<\/a> released by the Department confirms. The official account of the NYPD\u2019s interaction offers no mention of ICE. There are no additional insights or explanations of department protocol that might shed light on how officers are supposed to act given the circumstances. Curiously, what those officers thought when they encountered several masked men with guns, and the conversations that took place between the ICE agents and the police, is a mystery, too. All we know is that officers agreed at some point that the NYPD would place Belgal in a vehicle, apply aid, and take him to the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
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