Mamdani calls ICE to leave NYC after shooting

FILE PHOTO: ICE, DEA, Secret Service, NYPD, ATF New York, and the U.S. Marshalls participated in the immigration operations. (DHS Photo by Tia Dufour/Released)

(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is demanding that President Donald Trump cease ICE enforcement actions in the city after a man was shot by federal authorities yesterday during an operation.

Federal authorities said ICE agents were seeking to detain a 28-year-old Dominican national Thursday night when agents fired several shots into his vehicle, striking him in the neck. A five-year-old boy was reportedly in the car during the incident, but was uninjured, authorities said. The Department of Homeland Security said the man was an "illegal immigrant" with a lengthy history of run-ins with police.

But the shooting prompted protests in the Manhattan neighborhood and a chorus of outrage from New York's democratic leadership, who called on ICE to stop its immigration enforcement operations in the city.

"This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation," Mamdani said in remarks Thursday night. “I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.”

The mayor told a crowd of protesters that he spoke with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after the shooting but was unable to secure the man's release from custody.

"We will not normalize ICE's viciousness," he said in remarks. "NYC will not stand by while ICE agents shoot New Yorkers ... this is an agency that must be abolished."

New York's Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul also weighed into the criticism of ICE over the shooting and said she too spoke with the White House Thursday night.

"New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity," the governor said. "Federal authorities need to provide answers, and they must do so immediately."

But Homeland Security pushed back on the criticism from New York Democrats, pointing out that the suspect had a "prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession. He was also associated with the Trinitarios gang, which is accused of killing a Customs and Border Protection agent last year, the agency said.

DHS blamed New York's "sanctuary" policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration agents, which it said forces ICE agents to seek suspects in the community rather than when they are apprehended on local crimes.

The agency said the suspect in Thursday's incident was arrested by the NYPD in December 2023 on various charges, but days later was "released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk."

When dangerous illegal aliens are released back onto the streets by radical sanctuary politicians, our officers are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments," the agency said. "Our officers should not have to risk their lives, and innocent Americans should not have to face unnecessary danger, because sanctuary politicians refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement."