New York's new mayor went on national television Thursday to explain why hunting down child predators offends his sense of humanity.
ICE just pulled 206 people with rape and manslaughter convictions off New York streets – and Zohran Mamdani called the agents doing it cruel.
Now a democratic socialist born in Uganda is telling you that removing gang members from your neighborhood isn't public safety.
What Mamdani Actually Said
Thursday on MSNBC, Mayor Mamdani told host Jen Psaki exactly where he stands on federal agents removing violent criminals from New York neighborhoods.
"I view ICE actions to be cruel and inhumane," Mamdani said.
He didn't stop there.
"These are not actions that serve any interest of public safety," he added – about an agency that just pulled 206 people with manslaughter and rape convictions off New York streets.
Mamdani has been pushing this line since Day One.
He signed an executive order in February strengthening New York's sanctuary city protections – blocking ICE from entering schools or city property without a judicial warrant.
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He went on The View in January and called for abolishing ICE entirely.
"I am in support of abolishing ICE," Mamdani told the show's co-hosts.
His reasoning? ICE has "no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist."
He made the same case directly to the president.
What ICE Is Actually Doing in New York
While Mamdani was appearing on cable news to defend violent gang members from deportation, the numbers were telling a different story.
Operation Salvo – launched after a Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in Manhattan in July 2025 – produced 54 arrests of Trinitarios gang members across New York City.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described exactly who those 54 people were: members and affiliates of a violent transnational gang running weapons, moving drugs, and carrying out armed robberies across the five boroughs.
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A separate enhanced enforcement operation in April 2025 produced 206 arrests in one week across New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons described those arrested as people with "egregious criminal histories to include manslaughter, rape, assault, drug trafficking and sex assault against minors."
Mamdani's response to all of it: the agents making those arrests are the problem.
The Price Tag on Mamdani's Compassion
This isn't just one mayor with bad politics.
Between October 2022 and February 2025, sanctuary policies across the country resulted in the release of more than 26,000 criminal aliens that ICE was actively trying to deport.
On March 19, 2026, Sheridan Gorman – an 18-year-old college freshman from Westchester County – was shot in the back and killed while walking with friends on a Chicago lakefront pier near Loyola University.
Her killer was a Venezuelan national who had been caught at the southern border, released under Biden, later arrested in Chicago for shoplifting, released again, and then allowed to disappear for nearly three years while an unexecuted warrant sat in a drawer.
She was 18.
She was doing nothing wrong.
She is dead because sanctuary city officials decided their politics mattered more than her life.
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The House Oversight Committee documented exactly this pattern in a March 2026 memorandum – sanctuary jurisdictions ignoring lawful ICE detainers for criminal aliens already in local custody, releasing dangerous offenders back onto the streets rather than transferring them to federal agents.
Congress is responding.
Senator Lindsey Graham's End Sanctuary Cities Act of 2026 would impose up to five years in prison on state and local officials who willfully obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
President Trump signed two executive orders making clear that sanctuary cities refusing to cooperate with ICE risk losing federal funding.
Mamdani is still signing executive orders going the other direction.
He's Betting Your Safety on His Politics
Here's what Mamdani is actually arguing: that ICE agents removing gang members with weapons trafficking and rape convictions from New York neighborhoods is crueler than leaving those gang members in New York neighborhoods.
He's staking New Yorkers' lives on it – and he's proud of it.
The men ICE arrested in Operation Salvo were running weapons, moving drugs, and robbing people at gunpoint in New York City.
Mamdani doesn't think removing them serves public safety.
And Congress is now moving to make sure mayors who think that way answer for what they're doing to the people they were elected to protect.
Sources:
- Pam Key, "Zohran Mamdani: 'I View ICE Actions to Be Cruel and Inhumane,'" Breitbart, May 28, 2026.
- Peter Pinedo, "ICE Arrests Over 200 Illegal Aliens in New York City's 'Most Crime-Infested Neighborhoods,'" Fox News, April 18, 2025.
- "'Operation Salvo' Leads to 54 Arrests of Dominican Gang Members in New York City," KATV/TNND, January 8, 2026.
- "Noem Says Trump Administration Is 'On Offense,' Using 'Every Single Tool We Have' to Protect Americans," Fox News, January 8, 2026.
- "The Sanctuary Cities Debacle: How Defying Federal Law Is Crushing Taxpayers and Public Safety," Townhall, April 8, 2026.
- "The Senate Wants to Jail Mayors Who Obstruct Federal Law. Good." American Civil Rights Union, April 2, 2026.
- "Oversight Committee Releases Memorandum Exposing Reckless Sanctuary Policies' Impact on Public Safety and Taxpayers," House Oversight Committee, March 26, 2026.
