New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani returned fire to Markwayne Mullin on Thursday after the Homeland Security secretary threatened to halt the processing of international flights into the airports of sanctuary cities.
Mamdani appeared on “The Briefing with Jen Psaki,” who noted Mullin made his threat following protests outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in New Jersey amid reports of hunger strikes and poor conditions within its walls.
“Our laws and our values are not bargaining chips,” Mamdani said. “We will not be threatened to leave so many of the New Yorkers, who call this city home, prey to these kinds of cruel policies. We are proud of the fact that we are a sanctuary city.”
He continued, “We’re proud of that for a number of reasons. One, it is a policy designed to keep New Yorkers safe. Two, we know that here in our city, we are proud of the more than 3 million New Yorkers who are immigrants. I’m one of them.”
The Delaney protests escalated earlier this week after Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who said he spoke with “dozens” of hunger strike participants and detainees, was injured by pepper spray deployed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Monday.
Mullin said Tuesday on Fox News that he “visited with the White House” about the protests, adding that his department is already “drawing up plans to say, listen, in these sanctuary cities where the local, radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities either.”
On Thursday, Psaki asked Mamdani whether he had spoken with Trump about this threat, as the mayor has also met with the president — cordially — on multiple occasions. Mamdani said he preferred to keep “the cadence of our conversations” between himself and Trump.
“But what I will say, Jen, is that when I’ve had those conversations with the president, I have made clear, as you’ve said, that I view ICE actions to be cruel and inhumane,” the mayor told Psaki. “These are not actions that serve any interest of public safety.”
Mamdani also said ICE is “operating with impunity” in New York City and elsewhere around the country, adding that his constituents often “have no idea as to what could put them at risk” — aside from simply existing in the city they call home.