NEW YORK CITY, NY – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism following a social media post from earlier in October in which he provided insight into “what every New Yorker should know” when dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with much of the criticism stemming from his decision to post the instructions in Spanish.
Mayor Mamdani shared the controversial post on X on October 23, which featured a video of him speaking from his office and delivering verbal instructions in Spanish on how to deal with ICE agents during an encounter.
During the troublesome public service announcement, Mayor Mamdani said in Spanish that ICE agents “cannot enter private spaces like your home, school, hospitals or private areas of a workplace without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.” He then goes on to instruct would-be targets of immigration enforcement to tell ICE agents to leave their property and that they don’t consent to entry if devoid of a judicial warrant.
The New York City mayor then closes the video by asserting that, “These are very frightening times,” and that his administration is committed to fighting “every day to protect, support and celebrate” those who are ostensibly residing in the country illegally.
Reactions online to the published video largely read the issued statement as Mayor Mamdani explicitly instructing illegal aliens on how to avoid apprehension and, by extension, deportation. Others pondered whether the issued statement was tantamount to violating federal law regarding giving aid to illegal aliens in furtherance of evading federal law enforcement.
One comment in the thread described the whole ordeal as “incomprehensible, with the commenter writing, “I personally find it utterly…incomprehensible that in 2026 the Mayor of New York City is, in no unclear terms, literally publicly counseling folks who are here ILLEGALLY on how to sneak away and avoid the men and women of our law enforcement who are trying to do nothing more than constitutionally remove them.”
Another commenter leveraged Mayor Mamdani’s past statements against him, sharing a post of the New York City mayor’s which opened with, “No one is above the law in our city.”
Elected officials also weighed in on the controversial post, with Congressman Brandon Gill noting, “It should be insulting to every American that the mayor of our largest city is a guy who became a citizen less than a decade ago and now spends his time coaching illegal aliens in a foreign language on how they can avoid being lawfully deported.”
Mayor Mamdani’s office has yet to issue any additional statement regarding the October post and subsequent reaction online to its content.
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