(The Center Square) — “Border Czar” Tom Homan is vowing to “flood the zone” in New York City with ICE agents if mayoral candidate Zorhan Mamdani wins the election and makes good on pledges to oppose federal immigration crackdowns in the city.
Mamdani, a state lawmaker who won the Democratic primary last month in an upset over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has called the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a “rogue agency” and pledged to push back on federal immigration raids in the city, if he wins. The self-declared democratic socialist, who represents a section of Queens, is leading in the polls ahead of the Nov. 4 general election.
But Homan, who once served as the acting director of ICE, warned that the agency will continue to target undocumented immigrants living in the Big Apple for deportation, regardless of who wins the mayor’s race. He threatened to “triple down” on NYC and other sanctuary cities, calling them “public safety threats.”
“I’ve said it before, we’ll flood the zone with sanctuary cities. If they don’t let us arrest a bad guy in the county jail, they’re going to arrest them in the community, we’re going to arrest them at a work site,” Homan told reporters at the White House on Monday. “We’re going to get the bad guys, so if they don’t want to help, get out of the way, we’re coming to do it.”
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running for reelection as an independent, has been largely cooperative with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns. He has also agreed to allow ICE agents to reopen an office at the notorious Rikers Island jail, a move that is being challenged in court. Trump has praised Adams for supporting immigration enforcement in the city.
New York City has been a flashpoint in the national immigration debate with more than 230,000 migrants arriving in the city since early 2022. The city has spent an estimated $8 billion on housing and other costs for migrants, according to the Adams administration. ICE operations in the city have arrested nearly 29,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the agency’s website.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to have Mamdani arrested or deported if he attempts to block ICE operations in the city. The president has also questioned Mamdani’s legal status. He is a U.S. citizen.
“We’ll have to arrest him,” Trump said in a social media post. “We don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
Mamdani has pushed back on Trump’s threats and criticized the president’s statements expressing support for Adams reelection, calling it a “scandal” that the mayor is echoing Trump’s “division, distraction and hate.”
“His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you,” he said in a recent social media post. “We will not accept this intimidation.”
