Mamdani, Schumer and others urge NYC private property owners not to let ICE use parking areas as staging grounds

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and 100 other local officials are urging that private parking lots and garages in New York City prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from staging operations from private property.

City law already prohibits ICE from operating on city property absent a judicial warrant, but that prohibition does not extend to private property. Mamdani and the other signatories to a letter sent Thursday to 1,000 property owners ask them to adopt a similar prohibition to the city's.

"We write to ask for your help at a critical juncture for our City: we are asking that you do not rent, lend, or otherwise make your property available to ICE as a staging area for its enforcement operations," says the letter, which adds: "ICE is using private parking facilities across the City as staging grounds for its operations: from two bank parking lots on Northern Boulevard in Queens, to a garage on Morton Street in Manhattan. Each such use, whether part of a formal or informal arrangement or no arrangement at all, gives ICE a launching point for operations that have terrified and terrorized local communities, and risks placing your property, your employees, and your customers at the center of that."

The letter cites urgency catalyzed by ICE agents’ shooting last week of Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national who was wounded on the Manhattan-Bronx border while in the car with his 5-year-old.

Belgal, who was wounded in the neck, said through his lawyers that the agents never identified themselves before charging at his vehicle, guns drawn, and smashing his window with the butt of a gun. He tried to drive away, and agents shot at the car as he left. ICE says he tried to barrel toward the agents, an account not shown on surveillance video released by the NYPD.

"ICE officers had been utilizing a privately owned parking lot only a few blocks away to stage their operations," the letter says, which asks that "In solidarity with immigrant New Yorkers and in our shared commitment to the City we love, we ask that you do not rent, lend, or otherwise make your property available to ICE as a staging area for its enforcement operations."

The letter, shared by Mamdani’s office, was also signed by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and over 100 state legislators, City Council members and others.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, could not be immediately reached for comment.

In New York and across the country, Target has come under criticism and has been subject to protest because ICE has used the company's parking lots to stage operations. Target says it has no agreements with ICE.

The letter does not specifically name Target or any other company.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled that New York City’s police and other local government agencies cannot be conscripted into enforcing civil immigration law, dismissing a lawsuit by the Trump administration challenging city sanctuary city policies. The ruling echoed Trump court losses across the country.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.