Nearly 6,500 criminal illegal immigrants have been arrested in New York City under Trump-era enforcement policies, proof that when the federal government actually enforces immigration law, results follow — even as the city's new socialist mayor does everything in his power to obstruct federal agents while threatening to arrest an allied head of state.
The numbers tell a story the establishment press would rather bury. ICE has been operating across New York despite sanctuary policies that force agents into neighborhoods instead of jails, making every arrest harder and more dangerous than it needs to be. The stakes are straightforward: American communities bear the cost — in crime, in fentanyl, in drained resources — when politicians put foreign nationals ahead of citizens.
Tom Homan, the architect of the enforcement push, has promised a coming surge in the sanctuary city but refuses to telegraph specifics. Pressed by Fox News for details, Homan kept his cards close. "What makes you think we're not already there? We've got to remember ICE is operating in New York City today," he said. "But I am not going to show our hand because, you know, there are groups, well-funded groups that will try to interfere, impair, but we're not going to give them any upside on this."
The obstruction has a name: Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Washington Examiner reported that under former Mayor Eric Adams, there was initial cooperation — Adams said he would let ICE into Rikers Island to take custody of criminal aliens directly from jail. That ended the moment Mamdani won election last November. Mamdani told the New York Times he takes "pride" in sanctuary policies that bar local law enforcement from admitting ICE into Rikers. The result: federal agents can no longer pick up criminal aliens at the jail and must hunt them down one by one in communities.
Homan didn't mince words about the mayor's posture. "He talks about how he doesn't want to assist with civil immigration enforcement. Why'd you lock us out of Rikers Island? 'Cause that's all criminals. So he just don't want immigration law enforced."
Mamdani's priorities are revealing. While he moves heaven and earth to shield criminal illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement, he has campaigned on an entirely different kind of arrest: detaining Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York for events like the United Nations General Assembly. The New York Post reported that Mamdani, 34, has reiterated he would like to pursue the arrest based on the International Criminal Court's 2024 warrant over the war in Gaza.
President Trump shut that down fast. "Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America," Trump declared on Truth Social. The United States does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction — a point Mamdani himself has conceded, caveating that as mayor he will comply with U.S. laws.
So the picture is clear: Mamdani defies federal immigration law to protect criminal aliens but invokes a foreign court the U.S. doesn't recognize to threaten an allied leader. Nearly 6,500 arrests prove enforcement can work despite him. The open question is how many more criminal aliens would already be off the streets if the mayor of America's largest city wasn't actively working against the agents doing the job.
