New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order on Friday requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to get a judicial warrant before entering NYC buildings — a law that's already been in place since Eric Adams' administration.
“Masked agents paid by our own tax dollars violate the Constitution and visit terror upon our neighbors. They arrive as if atop a pale horse, and they leave a path of wreckage in their wake,” Mamdani said, at his first Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library, borrowing the phrase from the Bible. “It is a manifestation of the abuse of power.”
“We will make it clear once again ICE will not be able to enter New York City property without a judicial warrant. That means our schools, our shelters, and our hospitals,” he added.
However, according to the NY Post: "The order doesn’t appear to do anything more to protect New Yorkers than what is already on the books."
Mamdani went on to invoke both his Buddhist upbringing as well as his Islamic faith as reasons to protect illegal immigrants from federal law.
"I think of the freedom from suffering that Buddhism teaches us is only possible if we remove the three poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance from our daily lives. We need not accept suffering as unchangeable. We need not treat hatred as the natural state," Mamdani said. "We have the power to set ourselves free."
"And I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration. The story of the hijrah reminds us that Prophet Muhammad was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina," he continued. "Surah Al-Nahl 1642 tells us, 'As for those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world.' Or as the Prophet Muhammad said, 'Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange. So glad tidings to the strangers.'"
"If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources. Let us create a new expectation of City Hall, where power is wielded to love, to embrace, and to protect," Mamdani added. "We will stand with the stranger today."
NEW: NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani suggests America should take notes from the “Prophet” Muhammad when it comes to migration.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 6, 2026
“I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration.”
“The story of the Hijrah reminds us that Prophet Muhammad, was a stranger… pic.twitter.com/znH0dvOSE6