(NewsNation) — Immigration operations are expected to ramp up in New York City, as part of President Donald Trump’s nationwide enforcement crackdown in major cities.
On Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan announced the plans for operations during an interview with Fox News. Homan said he previously had an agreement with Mayor Eric Adams to use Rikers Island as part of the operations, but that those plans were halted by the city council.
“So, we’re going to be coming to New York City,” he said. “We’re already there now. I mean, teams are there now.”
Homan added that New York City is a self-described “sanctuary city” and that it has had an “issue there with public safety threats in the streets every day.”
One area of the city that is expected to see a surge in federal agents is Canal Street, which has previously been the site of immigration operations. The street has been linked to vendors selling knockoff handbags, designer clothing or bags that folks like to pick up on the cheap. In October, ICE announced it had made nine arrests during a Canal Street operation, and a majority of those individuals were from West Africa.
Meanwhile, the New York Immigration Coalition released footage this week of an ICE raid on a home in Queens that happened on November 13. The organization claims the agents did not identify themselves or provide a warrant, and then pointed guns at a mom and her four children. The coalition also notes that ICE was looking for a person who did not live at that address. DHS denies that it did anything wrong. 911 calls were made because neighbors thought this was a home invasion, which led to confusion, where two NYPD officers suffered minor injuries in that scuffle.
On Friday, President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met for what they later called a “productive” meeting at the White House. Following the meeting, Trump and Mamdani told reporters that they both wish to address crime.
In the past, the president has threatened to withhold funding from the city if Mamdani were elected. Meanwhile, Mamdani has been a vocal critic of ICE’s expanded raids in the city, as well as the Trump administration’s surge in deportations.
“The concerns that many New Yorkers have are around the enforcement of immigration laws on New Yorkers across the five boroughs, and most recently, we’re talking about a mother and her two children, how this has very little to do with what that is,” Mamdani said.
Trump followed this comment with a statement of his own.
“What we did is we discussed crime more than ICE, per se, we discussed crime, and he doesn’t want to see crime, and I don’t want to see crime, and I have very little doubt that we’re not going to get along on that issue,” Trump said.