Politics & Government
NYC Parking Garages Face Push To Ban ICE Staging Operations
The push follows an Oct. 8 shooting in Marble Hill, where officials say ICE agents used a nearby private parking lot to stage an operation.
NEW YORK CITY— Mayor Zohran Mamdani and more than 100 elected officials are urging New York City parking garage and lot owners to stop federal immigration agents from using their properties as staging areas for enforcement operations.
In a letter dated Oct. 16, the officials asked more than 1,000 property owners and operators across the five boroughs not to rent, lend or otherwise make their facilities available to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They also urged owners to tell the agency directly it does not have permission to use their properties.
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The request follows an Oct. 8 shooting in Marble Hill, where federal agents surrounded a car on a crowded residential street and shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in the neck while his 5-year-old son sat inside the vehicle, according to the mayor’s office.
The letter reads agents had been using a privately owned parking lot a few blocks away as a staging area.
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The officials also cited ICE activity at two bank parking lots on Northern Boulevard in Queens and a garage on Morton Street in Manhattan.
“Do not rent your property to ICE. Do not lend it to them. Tell them they are not welcome,” Mamdani said in a statement accompanying the letter.
New York City law restricts the use of city-owned property for federal civil immigration enforcement.
Those protections cover city parking facilities, schools, shelters and hospitals.
Without a judicial warrant or a limited legal exception, federal officers generally cannot use those properties as staging areas, processing sites or operational bases.
The signatories include U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, all five borough presidents and dozens of state legislators and City Council members.
New Yorkers seeking immigration legal assistance can call the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs hotline at 800-354-0365.
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