Question: I wanted to ask you about the letter to ICE and the Parks Department policy. Two questions, really. One is, what is it really going to do if they obey the letter of the law and just park across the street? What has that accomplished? And then I have a follow-up.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: I think first and foremost, we want to make very clear that we mean what we say when we talk about sanctuary city policies and we talk about the fact that our city will not assist in immigration enforcement. And what we've seen all too often is ICE's flouting of those directives and those laws. And this is a letter to make very clear that ICE has no right to use any city property or lots for anti-immigrant operations and that we are willing to go to court if they continue to do so.
Question: And as a follow-up, one part of the Parks Department policy is that employees, if ICE were to try to park at a park, would say, "What's the purpose of your visit?" and "Show me your ID." When that had been tried before at DOE, school employees were saying that's too much pressure on them to have to basically say to a masked ICE agent, "Show me why you're here." Are you comfortable with that onus being on a Parks Department employee?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I am confident in our city workers, frankly, and being the first line of defense for New Yorkers across the five boroughs, especially immigrant New Yorkers. We know we're a city of eight and a half million people. More than three million are immigrants, and so many immigrant New Yorkers right now are fearful of what their day-to-day life can look like in this city. And we've provided the guidance to parks workers, not only of what they should do in that situation, but also who they should call so that they're not facing this kind of a thing on their own.
Question: Mr. Mayor, have you spoken personally to President Trump about this issue, whether in the past or given that you just left his office?
Mayor Mamdani: The president and I are in open conversation and communication about a range of issues affecting our city. We've spoken directly about ICE. That is one of the clearest examples of a stark policy difference between the two of us, and that conversation will continue. I'll keep making the case that ICE is an agency that does not serve in the interest of public safety here in our city, and that New Yorkers deserve to have that safety, no matter if they were born here or elsewhere.
Question: But if there are continued violations of your policy here, as far as the parking lots, would you reach out to them?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it'll always be a part of that conversation, and we're also making clear to ICE directly that we are willing to go to court if that's necessary.
Question: I wanted to follow up. When it comes to the Parks employees, in the sense of burden, I mean, could they potentially face consequences if they know that's happening and they don't want to go up to the ICE agent and, you know, start the whole entire conversation? Then I also wanted to ask, at what point does the threat of legal action become actual legal action? You know, ICE moves quickly in the city. They may stage out a parking lot one day and be at a different one the other day. At what point do you say, you know, now is the time to pull the trigger?
Mayor Mamdani: This is the moment where we are issuing this letter to make it clear that any continued violations beyond this now triggers the threat of legal action. And we're being clear about this because we do not want any complicity in these immigration enforcement actions. We've made very clear that they are actions that threaten the safety of New Yorkers. Again, the most recent ICE raid that has been in the minds of New Yorkers is that when ICE agents opened fire on a moving vehicle in broad daylight right after school was let out to try and stop Oscar Bergall, shooting at his car, within which his 5-year-old child was also present.
So that's really what we're talking about, the consequences at hand. When it comes to Parks workers, they now know what it is to be done when facing an ICE agent. That is to ask for ID, to ask for a judicial warrant, to call our lawyers before anyone has provided access. I have full confidence in them and in the entire city apparatus to be able to respond to those kinds of situations.
Question: Hi, Mayor. I'm wondering - so was the city in violation of sanctuary city policy for these instances by even unwittingly letting ICE operate on these parking lots?
And then, second question, I just wonder what your message is to voters who maybe don't feel the same urgency as they did last year [when] we're in a blue state, especially for members of your base - there aren't super progressive, competitive races on the ballots. So, why should they vote tomorrow?
Mayor Mamdani: I think when it comes to the election tomorrow, it's an opportunity to do a number of things. The first is to send a message that we want to keep driving down costs for working-class New Yorkers. The governor and I have worked well together in delivering universal childcare as a reality for thousands of New Yorkers, saving those same New Yorkers upwards of $2,000 a month. And that is the very kind of program that Bruce Blakeman would terminate on day one. He has said that himself.
When we're talking here about SNAP cuts, we know that 26,500 New Yorkers lost their SNAP benefits. Another 900,000 New Yorkers are at risk of losing their health insurance as a result of H.R. 1. Bruce Blakeman's response to H.R. 1 was to say that he wanted to cut Medicaid in half. That's what's on the ballot right there.
And then when we're talking about the ballot, we also should talk about flipping the ballot because we have the five ballot proposals from the Commission on Government Efficiency, and those are proposals on making government run faster. Whether you are a New Yorker and you want a small business to succeed; proposal No. 1 would cut $1,800 from that small business's fees, speed up outdoor dining processing by 75 percent.
If you work for a nonprofit, you want to see that nonprofit get your money faster from the city, proposal No. 2 speeds up that process. If you're a New Yorker who's concerned about crossing the street and making sure that you're always safe - no matter where you are in the five boroughs - proposal No. 3 fast-tracks street safety improvements. Proposal No. 4 takes 18 agencies that require 40 approvals, makes it into one place; and proposal No. 5 strengthens our city's savings. So, there's a lot to vote on tomorrow, and we're looking forward to seeing New Yorkers do that.
Question: Was the city in violation of its own sanctuary city policies?
Mayor Mamdani: No.
Question: So, we've done a lot of reporting about SNAP fraud, about people losing their SNAP benefits to fraud - they show up at the grocery line, they're about to pay for their stuff with their EBT card, and there's nothing on it. It's been stolen by online theft. And the federal government used to reimburse this, to get their money back [inaudible], and they stopped. Is this something the city could help fill in the gaps on? Is this something you've looked at, that the city could help make people whole so they could buy groceries that month?
Mayor Mamdani: We are looking at every option that we have to deliver for New Yorkers who are being priced out by the cost of groceries and by the cost-of-living crisis. And when it comes to SNAP fraud, this is something that I was familiar with as an Assembly member, as I would have constituents who would find unwittingly that their card had been copied and that their benefits had been drawn down without their knowledge. That's something we're going to continue to work with the state on to ensure that we're protecting New Yorkers to the best of our ability.
When it comes to what we can do, we have, for example, increased the Health Bucks that are available to New Yorkers who are on SNAP by 40 percent, so they can buy from fresh stands and farmers markets more fresh produce they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. We're also looking to keep as many New Yorkers on SNAP as were on it before. We know that these work rule changes have been devastating. 26,500 New Yorkers did lose their SNAP benefits. But thanks to the work of so many city workers across city agencies, we were able to keep more than 200,000 New Yorkers on SNAP who were otherwise at risk of losing it.
Question: For New Yorkers, this month, next month, until these chip cards come in, [they] show up and their money for the month is gone, what should they do?
Mayor Mamdani: I think the first thing to do for them is to report it. The second thing to do is, if they're having larger concerns around SNAP eligibility, to go to nyc.gov/workrules. And what I will say is we will always look at ways that we can help working-class New Yorkers afford their life in the city. It is difficult to keep up with the scale of the federal government's cuts, just given the amount of money we're talking about. We're hopeful that we will see a different policy approach, and we're hopeful that we will see Democrats take back the House and the Senate and really create the constituency for that kind of a demand.
Question: Mayor, do you want to say anything about the [inaudible]?
Mayor Mamdani: It's great. Keep voting. 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. And if you see a poll worker, say thank you because they've been working so hard throughout the entirety of early voting. Thank you so much.
