“We can all fight ICE if we know our rights,” Zohran Mamdani, mayor-elect of New York, said in a video he shared today on his social media. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to raid migrants, arresting them anywhere and under any pretext with the intent of deporting them, sometimes even to countries where they have no roots, or locking them in places like the detention center already known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” where 32 people are crammed to a cell.
Migrants often don’t know how to behave around these federal agents, so Mamdani offered them some guidelines regarding the recent raid on Canal Street. “As mayor, I will protect the rights of New Yorkers, including the more than three million immigrants who call this city home,” he said.
Mamdani explains that anti-immigration agents cannot enter private spaces such as “homes, schools or workplaces without a court order,” of which he shows a model, which he compares with another document that ICE personnel usually display, saying it gives them the right to arrest you. “This is false,” emphasizes the politician, who adds that in this case they can respond that they are not allowed to enter the private property where they are and keep the door closed.
“ICE has the legal permission to lie, but you have the right to remain silent,” he adds. Mamdani points out that if a person is arrested, they have the right to record the officers “as long as this does not hinder their arrest”. It also recommends “remain calm, do not resist arrest or flee.”
Finally, he declares that “New Yorkers have a constitutional right to protest” and that he will protect that right. “New York will always welcome immigrants, and I will fight every day to protect, support and celebrate our migrant brothers and sisters,” concludes the Democratic politician, himself the son of Indian and Ugandan migrants.
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