Schumer, Jeffries Join Mamdani Push to Keep ICE Out of NYC Garages

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are asking private parking garage and lot owners across the five boroughs to shut their doors to federal immigration agents, according to a letter released Friday by the mayor’s office.

“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,” the letter reads, according to the copy posted by the NYC Mayor’s Office. The letter also tells owners to “make it known to ICE that it is not authorized to use your garages and lots,” as reported by ABC News and NBC New York.

NEW: Mayor Mamdani leads a letter w/ 100+ NYC elected officials (incl. Schumer, Jeffries and all Dems in the city's congressional delegation) urging parking lot and garage owners not to make their property "available to ICE as a staging area for its enforcement operations." pic.twitter.com/9mU5yMetDM

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 16, 2026

More than 100 elected officials signed on, ABC7 New York reported, including dozens of state and local lawmakers and the vast majority of the City Council, according to Gothamist and ABC News. The signers also include New York’s two U.S. senators, Gothamist reported.

Democrats target private property after Bronx shooting

The push follows an Oct. 8 incident in the Marble Hill neighborhood in which federal agents shot a 28-year-old man, Oscar Belgal, during an immigration enforcement operation, according to The Hill and ABC7 New York. The mayor’s office says agents had been staging from a nearby private parking lot before the shooting, ABC7 reported. The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal had a prior criminal conviction and arrests, according to The Hill.

“Do not rent your property to ICE. Do not lend it to them. Tell them they are not welcome,” Mamdani said in a statement announcing the letter, according to ABC7 New York.

The letter notes that city law already bars outside law enforcement from staging on city-owned property without a judicial warrant or a limited legal exception, but “these laws govern City property, not the private lots and garages that you operate,” the letter says, according to ABC News. In other words, Democrats are now asking private business owners to voluntarily do what city law cannot force them to do, as ABC7 New York described the request.

The letter singles out two bank parking lots on Northern Boulevard in Queens and a garage on Morton Street in Lower Manhattan as places where ICE has staged operations, according to Gothamist. It praises the Morton Street operator for removing ICE vehicles after neighbors complained and calls that “courageous,” Gothamist reported.

DHS: Parking bans won’t stop deportations

The Department of Homeland Security fired back. “Mayor Mamdani should be grateful to our brave law enforcement officers for cleaning up the streets of NYC since he won’t,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, according to The Hill and ABC News. The spokesperson added that closing off parking would not stop ICE from deporting criminal illegal aliens from New York, The Hill reported.

Border czar Tom Homan has also made clear the administration is not backing down in the city. “We’re going to do the job in NYC and every sanctuary city across the country,” Homan said in a clip posted Friday by the Rapid Response 47 account on X, adding that he promised a year ago to “surge resources in sanctuary cities.”

The letter lands less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms, and it puts the two Democrats who want to lead Congress, Schumer and Jeffries, on record asking private businesses to keep federal immigration officers off their property. Supporters of the effort say immigrant communities have grown fearful of everyday routines amid stepped-up enforcement, ABC7 New York reported. Conservative commentators on X have blasted the letter as elected officials leaning on private businesses to shut out federal law enforcement.

Reporting by Daily Beltway.