New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash from his supporters and allies who believe he is not taking a hard enough line against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the city.
Politico reported that the mayor’s progressive allies are pressuring him to impose harsher restrictions on how the New York Police Department (NYPD) can interact with ICE.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing mounting pressure from progressive leaders to enact stricter rules on how the NYPD can interact with federal immigration authorities — the latest sign of a broadening chasm between the mayor and his own supporters.
Attention on the issue intensified Saturday when police officers blocked protesters advancing toward U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were transporting an immigrant detainee from a Brooklyn hospital. As video of the chaos went viral, accusations that Mamdani’s NYPD had coordinated with ICE — in violation of local sanctuary laws — quickly accumulated. The mayor has rejected the claim.
In a letter to Mamdani, Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and four other elected Democrats who endorsed the mayor’s 2025 campaign wrote that they believe the NYPD “coordinated on the ground with ICE agents” outside the hospital. And they implored him to immediately overhaul NYPD policies in response.
“Officers arriving at a scene where federal agents are already operating cannot be left to improvise. They need a bright-line rule, communicated up and down the chain of command, that informs them when to disengage, when to step back, when to refuse a request for assistance, and how to document what they observed,” they wrote in the Wednesday letter, which was obtained by POLITICO. “The absence of such a standard, or the failure to enforce one, is how we ended up with NYPD officers visibly working alongside ICE outside a hospital.”
NOW: Heavy NYPD presence after police communications describe a large group of "Disorderly protesters" gathered outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Protest gathered following reports that an individual detained by ICE was transported to the hospital.
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 3, 2026
Activists reported… pic.twitter.com/X7YKcx0x0v
Some on the left seem to believe Mamdani is shifting toward the center since he has not cracked down on NYPD’s conduct when it comes to ICE. They are also frustrated by his decision to keep Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who they believe is softer on the Trump administration, in her position.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso slammed Mamdani over his defense of NYPD activity during the chaos in front of the hospital. “For two hours and 55 minutes, they were doing exactly what we were expecting them to do, which is crowd control, making sure that everyone is safe, no one’s getting hurt,” he said. However, he said that afterward, “there was a full-on coordination between the NYPD and ICE,” along with “obvious, constant communication.”
Mamdani is walking a political tightrope on the immigration issue. If he acts too aggressively toward ICE, it could provoke a harsh reaction from President Donald Trump, whose administration already threatened to “flood” New York with ICE agents.
A Mamdani spokesperson told Politico that the mayor is “committed to upholding New York City’s laws protecting immigrant communities and ensuring there is clear, consistent guidance for how city agencies handle situations involving federal immigration authorities.”
Mamdani’s administration is set to announce updated policies and protocols governing how the NYPD interacts with ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies.