Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that he is “for abolishing” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during an interview on The View on Tuesday.
“I’m for abolishing ICE, and I’ll tell you why,” Mamdani said in response to a question about whether ICE has “any legitimate role in law enforcement.”
“What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling the reason why it supposedly exists,” he explained. “We are seeing a government agency that is supposed to enforce certain immigration laws, but instead is terrorizing people regardless of their immigration status, regardless of the facts of the law or the facts of each case.”
Mamdani noted that he is “tired of waking up every day and seeing a new image of someone being forcibly removed from their car, from their home, from their life. What we need to see is humanity.”
“And there is a way to address immigration in this city and in this country with a sense of humanity,” the mayor continued. “What we are seeing from ICE is not that, and we have not seen it from them in a long time.”
The mayor has been a consistent critic of ICE, which has stepped up the frequency and tactics of its operations during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. ICE agents have increased arrests in New York City, particularly at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, where immigrants attend routine hearings.
Over the past year, ICE agents across the country have used masks and plainclothes to conceal their identities during raids and arrests, raising questions from top legal officials and elected officials — including Mamdani — about the legality of these operations.
During a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech on Monday, Mamdani expressed concern about ICE’s conduct, citing “ICE’s cowardly abuses throughout this country and also in this city,” and asserting that the agency is targeting immigrant communities.
“They wear masks because they know what they are doing is wrong,” he said in his speech.
Mamdani is an immigrant. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, and came to New York City at the age of nine.
Hundreds of New Yorkers took to the streets in October 2025 following an ICE raid on Canal Street, in which agents detained several street vendors, four of whom were US citizens.
The mayor also condemned the death of Renee Good at the hands of ICE on January 7 in Minneapolis and reiterated New York’s sanctuary city policies, which ensure that ICE cannot enter schools or city property without a court order.
“Look, our values and our laws are not bargaining chips. We are proud of them. We are New Yorkers who believe that everyone in this city should be safe,” Mamdani said during a Sunday morning interview with ABC7.
Good’s death sparked protests across the country, including in New York City.
In calling for the abolition of ICE, Mamdani joins a growing group of elected officials seeking to eliminate the agency. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–Bronx/Queens) has called for the abolition of ICE and pushed for drastic cuts to its funding in Congress.
ICE faces growing unpopularity nationwide. A recent Associated Press/NORC poll found that 38% of adults support the way Trump has handled immigration following Good’s death, up from 49% in March 2025.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
