The second debate in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Thursday began with the leading candidates jockeying to position themselves as liberal bulwarks against President Trump and his immigration crackdown. The president recently deployed military troops to California in response to protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles that have spread to other cities, including New York.
Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed to defend the city’s so-called sanctuary laws, predicting that Mr. Trump would not dare to send troops to New York, saying, “He cannot win a fight with me as mayor of New York.”
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani spoke forcefully against the immigration arrests taking place in the city’s federal immigration courts over the past few weeks, promising that under his mayoralty, the Police Department would not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
And Adrienne Adams noted how she had wielded her bully pulpit as speaker of the City Council to sue Mayor Eric Adams over his efforts to allow the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to open offices at the Rikers Island jail complex.
During one pointed exchange, Brad Lander, the city comptroller, challenged Mr. Cuomo’s use of the term “illegal immigrants” when talking about people hired to clean the subway.
“What did you call them?” Mr. Lander said, interrupting Mr. Cuomo, who changed course and used the term preferred among many Democrats, “undocumented.”
Since the last mayoral debate, the candidates have cast Mr. Trump’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles as federal overreach aimed at stoking unrest to advance his immigration agenda.
Mr. Mamdani has called it a display of “authoritarianism,” while Mr. Cuomo has described the deployment of the National Guard and Marines over the objection of local leaders as unconstitutional. In response, he released a six-point plan on Tuesday, calling for the city to “proactively identify public spaces where peaceful protests can occur safely.”
None of the candidates have joined the demonstrations in New York, which over several days have occasionally resulted in clashes between protesters and police officers.
At least 115 demonstrators have been arrested since last week, including 22 people who tried to block vans carrying migrants from ICE offices on Saturday, and 86 people on Tuesday.
Most of the candidates have said that they would defend the city’s sanctuary laws, which restrict cooperation between city agencies and the federal government on civil immigration enforcement. Their position stands in sharp contrast to that of the current mayor, Mr. Adams, who has sought to alter the laws so that the city can work more closely with the federal government to go after immigrants who have been accused of committing crimes.
In a city with an estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants, many of the candidates have cast immigrants as an integral part of the city’s backbone, and have focused their rhetoric on defending due process while ensuring that those convicted of serious crimes are deported.
Mr. Mamdani, who has said that ICE should be abolished, sought to confront the president’s border czar, Thomas Homan, in Albany earlier this year, and he has called on the city to increase funding for legal assistance to undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Lander also supports expanding legal services. Last week, he sat in on immigration court proceedings in Lower Manhattan, at a building where ICE has been arresting migrants when they show up for routine hearings. Mr. Lander escorted families at risk of arrest past ICE agents and out of the courthouse.
Ms. Adams has cast herself as a leader already protecting the sanctuary laws. The Council sued the mayor in April over his plan to allow ICE back into the Rikers Island jail complex. (A judge temporarily blocked the plan.) On Tuesday, Ms. Adams requested that the Department of Investigation probe the Police Department’s communications with ICE; the mayor’s office denounced the move as a political stunt.
Luis Ferré-Sadurní is a Times reporter covering immigration, focused on the influx of migrants arriving in the New York region.
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