New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani lied about warrantless arrests and an ICE raid during a video promising to stand with illegal immigrants.
Mamdani parroted the Democrat lie that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot perform warrantless searches or arrests. He is more crafty than many Democrats, however, in that he told people not to interfere directly with ICE arrests as they were happening or to resist arrest violently, possibly trying to cover his bases should the feds investigate him for his potentially illegal anti-ICE advice.
The socialist mayor-elect started off by bemoaning an ICE raid on Canal Street. ICE was arresting Senegalese illegal Abdou Tall, a repeat offender re-released numerous times by New York authorities, despite trafficking counterfeit merchandise, for which the feds arrested him.
Know your rights. Protect your neighbors.
New York is — and always will be — a city for all immigrants. pic.twitter.com/nuntRzgEwq
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 7, 2025
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Naturally, Mamdani did not mention that when he claimed “ICE attempted to raid Canal Street and detain our immigrant neighbors. As mayor, I’ll protect the rights of every single New Yorker, and that includes them more than 3 million immigrants who call the city their home.” Shielding illegal aliens is a federal crime (see 8 U.S. Code § 1324).
Mamdani then asserted that illegals have rights that restrict their arrest and deportation, which is deceptive. “Know your rights,” Mamdani droned. “ICE cannot enter into private spaces like your home, school, or a private area of your workplace, without a judicial warrant signed by a judge… Sometimes ICE will show you paperwork that looks like this and tell you that they have the right to arrest you. That is false. ICE is legally allowed to lie to you, but you have the right to remain silent.”
This is so despicable that it is hard to comprehend. Of course, ICE has the absolute right to arrest and deport anyone in the country illegally, regardless of other circumstances. And there is no legal right to lie, but what Mamdani is afraid of is that ICE does, in fact, have the authority to make warrantless arrests, which he is trying to pretend don’t exist.
Then came Mamdani’s cleverly phrased encouragement to harass ICE without explicitly telling people to interfere: “You are legally allowed to film ICE as long as you do not interfere with an arrest. It is important to remain calm during any interaction with ICE or law enforcement, to not impede their investigation, resist arrest, or run.”
He then wound up his outrageous video by trying to pretend that violent riots against federal law enforcement are simply examples of the constitutional right to assembly. “New Yorkers had a constitutional right to protest. And when I’m mayor, we will protect that right. New York will always welcome immigrants, and I will fight each and every day to protect, support, and celebrate our immigrant brothers and sisters,” Mamdani pontificated. Since he is very sympathetic to Islamic terrorists, it is not really a surprise that he is also sympathetic to foreign criminals living in America.
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Let’s do what Mamdani hopes you won’t do — look at federal law and its warrantless arrests powers to immigration enforcement. 8 U.S.C. § 1357 lays out “powers without warrant” which include (emphasis added):
…to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States;
[] to arrest any alien who in his presence or view is entering or attempting to enter the United States in violation of any law or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission, exclusion, expulsion, or removal of aliens, or to arrest any alien in the United States, if he has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest…
Furthermore, Border Patrol and ICE have the warrantless power to “make arrests for felonies which have been committed and which are cognizable under any law of the United States regulating the admission, exclusion, expulsion, or removal of aliens, if he has reason to believe that the person so arrested is guilty of such felony and if there is likelihood of the person escaping.” All of which undermines Mamdani’s deceptive claims.
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