- Mayor Zohran Mamdani and more than 100 officials urged private property owners to deny ICE staging access.
- The October 16 letter asks garage and lot operators across New York City to refuse voluntary use.
- The appeal followed Oscar Belgal’s shooting; accounts of the encounter differ, and Target denies cooperating with federal agents.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and more than 100 elected officials asked private parking lot and garage owners Friday to keep ICE from using their properties as staging areas for enforcement operations. The letter seeks voluntary refusals across the five boroughs.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries signed it with Mamdani. The reported count included 109 additional elected officials. The request is not an order.
The officials sent the letter on October 16, 2026, days after federal agents shot Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill. Mamdani said agents had turned to private lots after city rules barred them from staging on municipal property.
He asked owners to stop giving agents that option. “I am asking every garage and lot owner in this city to stop giving them that option,” Mamdani said in a Friday statement.
The letter asks owners to make a voluntary choice
An executive order Mamdani signed earlier this year bars outside law enforcement agencies from setting up staging areas on city property without a judicial warrant or certain “limited legal exceptions.” Private garages and lots are outside that rule.
“These laws govern City property, not the private lots and garages that you operate,” the letter says. It asks businesses not to rent, lend or otherwise make their property available as a staging point.
The officials argue that a lot can put workers and customers close to federal activity, even without a formal arrangement. They say owners who refuse access protect their employees, customers and other New Yorkers.
The letter also points to an example in lower Manhattan. A Morton Street garage operator removed federal vehicles after neighbors raised concerns, the officials said. They thanked the operator and urged other owners to follow suit.
The appeal followed the Marble Hill shooting
Federal immigration officers shot 28-year-old Dominican national Oscar Belgal on October 8, 2026, during an arrest in the Marble Hill neighborhood. His five-year-old son was in the car. Belgal was shot in the neck and survived.
Belgal received hospital treatment and remains in federal custody. Advocates are calling for his immediate release and additional medical care.
Accounts of the shooting differ. In a court filing Wednesday, Belgal’s lawyers said officers fired several shots as he tried to drive away. They said the officers wore masks and civilian clothes and did not identify themselves.
New York City police security-camera footage released last week shows part of the encounter but does not conclusively establish how the shooting unfolded. Federal officials said officers believed their lives were in danger. They said Belgal struck two government vehicles and accelerated toward agents before they fired.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, said Belgal had a prior criminal conviction and arrests. Mamdani called the shooting “unconscionable” and demanded that federal immigration activity in the city stop. He also criticized the officer’s conduct; at one point, he compared the plainclothes officer to a “mass shooter.”
DHS rejected the parking-lot appeal. A spokesperson said the officers were cleaning up city streets and that restrictions on parking would not halt deportations. DHS is led by Markwayne Mullin, who defended the officer and criticized Mamdani’s rhetoric.
Officials and the property owners dispute where agents staged
The letter says federal agents had used a private lot near the Marble Hill shooting as a staging area. Officials and immigrant advocates identified a Target parking lot as the location. Target and a co-owner of the lot said they were not cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The company said it had no agreement with the agency or another immigration enforcement body to use its properties. DHS also said agents did not use the Target lot to plan their operation. Those denials came as officials, clergy members and immigrant advocates protested outside the store, and some New Yorkers called for a boycott.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and local leaders rallied outside the Target last week. Mamdani said the garage on Morton Street had removed federal vehicles after neighbors spoke up, while the letter also identified bank parking lots on Northern Boulevard in Queens as places agents had operated from.
A Bronx garage serving a Target had reportedly been used as a staging site as far back as April. The reports added to residents’ concerns about private sites being used for federal activity. The officials’ letter asks operators across the city to refuse access, whether an arrangement is formal or informal.
The signatories include city, state and national Democrats
The signatories include Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as most members of the City Council and dozens of other state and local officials. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who signed, said he did not want people in his community, the Bronx or elsewhere endangered by what he called reckless actions by undertrained agents.
The shooting also intensified pressure on Mamdani from allies in the Democratic Socialists of America to take stronger action. U.S. House candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and other allies focused criticism on Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, accusing her of violating sanctuary policies that restrict NYPD cooperation with the agency.
The NYPD had no involvement in the shooting. Some progressives called for Tisch to be fired or to resign, but Mamdani said she was staying in her job.
Other businesses have faced similar pressure
Private companies have also been pulled into disputes over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement push. In January, a Minnesota hotel that refused to host immigration officers apologized after DHS criticized the decision, saying it violated the hotel’s internal policies.
Protesters also occupied the lobby of a Manhattan hotel they said was housing immigration officers. The New York letter closes by appealing for cooperation among civic and business leaders: “Time and again, New York City has made it through challenging moments because government, business and community leaders come together and show the world what New Yorkers can do.”
