New York City Politics

Dozens of protesters were arrested after staging a sit-in in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Manhattan; the NYPD says officers ordered the crowd to leave before arresting those who remained but has not provided a precise arrest count. Demonstrators wearing shirts reading "Hilton houses ICE" demanded the hotel stop allegedly housing federal immigration officers, and a DHS spokesperson said the department would not disclose whether officers were staying at the hotel.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that the city’s universal pre‑K and 3‑K programs for children turning 3 or 4 in 2026 will enroll “every single New Yorker” regardless of immigration status and will not ask families about children’s status during enrollment. In a media roundtable, he stressed that all children in the city are “New Yorkers” who should have access to free early‑childhood programs that can save families tens of thousands of dollars a year in childcare costs. Mamdani also reiterated New York’s sanctuary‑city rules, saying ICE agents are barred from schools, hospitals and other city property unless they present a judicial warrant signed by a judge, and that agents usually carry only administrative warrants or no paperwork. The clarification came after a reporter asked how the city will keep families safe from ICE amid rising national tension over immigration enforcement and recent high‑profile raids in other states. The policy puts New York firmly on the side of including undocumented children in public early‑education while limiting federal immigration agents’ access to those settings, a stance likely to draw fire from immigration‑hardline politicians and praise from immigrant‑rights groups watching how big cities respond to Trump‑era enforcement.

On his first day in office, Mayor Zohran Mamdani revoked several of former Mayor Eric Adams’s post‑Sept. 26, 2024 executive orders — including the city’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, a ban on city agencies boycotting Israel and an order expanding NYPD security for synagogues — prompting sharp criticism from Israeli officials and local Jewish and civil‑rights groups who warned the moves weaken protections for Jewish New Yorkers. Mamdani said the revocations were a wholesale "reset" after Adams’s indictment, argued the IHRA definition "does not actually protect Jewish New Yorkers," and pledged to protect Jewish communities through other measures while reissuing orders he still supports.

New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is organizing what it calls a large rapid‑response network to federal immigration enforcement, with leaders telling attendees at a recent meeting they aim to train roughly 4,000 volunteers to monitor and, in some cases, disrupt ICE operations across the city, according to the New York Post account cited by Fox. A DSA organizer identified only as “Marina” said similar tactics have previously helped deter ICE detentions in New York and pointed to ongoing protests in Minnesota — including whistle alerts, crowd mobilization and confrontations outside federal buildings — as a model. The planned tactics include using whistles and other noisemakers to broadcast ICE activity and draw activists into the streets in real time, essentially standing up a civilian alert system parallel to DHS operations. The organizing push comes as Minnesota has seen mass protests and federal use of tear gas after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, and as President Trump has publicly threatened, then downplayed for now, use of the Insurrection Act and placed the Army’s 11th Airborne Division on prepare‑to‑deploy orders for Minnesota. DHS declined comment to Fox, but the episode underscores how street‑level resistance to immigration raids in one Midwestern city is being consciously exported to New York, potentially setting up sharper clashes between federal agents and organized networks of activists in multiple jurisdictions.