President Trump’s top border adviser said on Tuesday that federal officials would ramp up immigrant detentions in New York City, repeating a threat that carried additional weight after the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor.
Speaking on Fox News, the official, Thomas Homan, said that he was targeting New York City because of its so-called sanctuary policies, which prevent local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities on most matters.
“We know we have an issue there with public safety,” Mr. Homan said of New York. “If they don’t want to assist and they want to keep pushing back and impeding our efforts, then we’re going to just send more teams there. We’re going to flood the zone.”
The city’s sanctuary laws, most of which were passed in 2014 when Bill de Blasio was mayor, strictly limit communication and cooperation between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and city departments.
Mr. Homan’s warning came as New York’s leaders have been preparing for the possibility that Mr. Trump will deploy the National Guard or more immigration agents to New York after Mr. Mamdani’s victory on Nov. 4.
Mr. Mamdani, a Democrat and democratic socialist, ran for mayor arguing that only he could stand up to Mr. Trump, whom he described as a threat to democracy. Mr. Trump has belittled Mr. Mamdani for months, calling him a danger to New York. (Mr. Mamdani reached out to the White House recently to set up a meeting with the president.)
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who met with Mr. Mamdani last week to discuss Mr. Trump’s threats, said on Monday that state officials had been conducting exercises ahead of a potential federal deployment, adding that the city’s business leaders, some of whom have ties to Mr. Trump, would have a “very important” role to play.
“I’ve had conversations with a lot of business leaders and saying, ‘When the time comes, make sure that you also convey your concerns about what this would do to destabilize New York City and the outside impact that this would have across America,’” she said in Albany on Monday.
New York officials have held phone calls with their counterparts in Chicago and Los Angeles to learn from their experiences confronting a surge in federal agents. Those discussions have focused, in part, on ensuring that any protests remain peaceful, to avoid the scenes of violence that could give Mr. Trump a pretext for deploying troops.
“They highlighted how important it is to get ahead of the narrative,” said Ana María Archila, a co-director of the progressive Working Families Party, who has participated in the calls. “Trump is looking for a fight. He wants the images of the fight in the streets.”
Since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown started, much of the enforcement in New York City has taken place at federal immigration courts. But agents have also arrested people in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and towns across the state, including on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.
This month, Border Patrol agents conducted an operation targeting commercial truck drivers on Interstate 90 near Buffalo. They arrested 37 men who they said were undocumented and had been issued commercial driver’s licenses, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The federal government buttressed its deportation campaign with an infusion of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement efforts as part of Mr. Trump’s domestic policy law. Shortly after it passed in July, Mr. Homan visited New York City with Kristi Noem, the U.S. homeland security secretary, to blame Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s sanctuary laws for the shooting of an off-duty customs officer in Manhattan during an attempted robbery.
As New York City officials prepared for the potential arrival of the National Guard, county clerks in other parts of the state expressed dismay that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency had abruptly canceled naturalization ceremonies, probably complicating the process for some immigrants.
At least seven counties were affected, said Timothy C. Idoni, the Westchester County clerk. The clerk’s office there has held such ceremonies for more than 40 years. On Friday, Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes parts of Westchester, wrote a letter to Joseph B. Edlow, the director of the citizenship agency, seeking to reverse the decision.
Matthew J. Tragesser, a spokesman for the agency, said that the county courts did not meet federal requirements to conduct naturalization ceremonies. Applicants scheduled to take part in ceremonies would receive new appointments, and their naturalization processes would continue, Mr. Tragesser said.
Mr. Idoni said that applicants would now probably have to travel to 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan to complete the final citizenship requirements and to receive naturalization certificates instead of participating in celebratory events arranged by their communities. The building in Manhattan has offices for the citizenship agency as well as for ICE, and it has become the epicenter of immigration arrests in the city.
“Heaven knows what they face down there, with all the things that are going on with immigration issues,” Mr. Idoni said. “We’re all very upset.”
Grace Ashford contributed reporting.
Ana Ley is a Times reporter covering immigration in New York City.
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