Trump Administration Scolds Mamdani For Executive Order Reaffirming Sanctuary Protections

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s administration blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday for issuing an executive order reaffirming the city’s sanctuary laws, contending the directive will make the city “less safe.”

Mamdani’s order instructs all municipal agencies to ensure compliance with existing sanctuary laws, which bar city employees from assisting federal authorities in most forms of immigration enforcement. The order also directed certain public-facing agencies, including the NYPD, to have their employees undergo new training on sanctuary restrictions. The executive action did not otherwise enact any new restrictions.

Still, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, said Mamdani’s move raises public safety concerns.

“Mamdani will make New Yorkers less safe as a direct result of this policy,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

She also demanded the mayor “agree to release criminals in New York City’s custody to ICE before they are released back onto the Big Apple’s streets to victimize and prey on more Americans.”

The DHS rebuke comes after Trump threatened last month to “significantly” slash federal funding for all sanctuary jurisdictions in the U.S. He gave cities a Feb. 1 deadline to roll back their sanctuary protections or face funding cuts.

But that deadline came and went without any immediate cuts in New York City.

Democrat-led cities across the country have taken increasingly aggressive steps to fight Trump’s immigration crackdowns since ICE and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens who had been protesting enforcement sweeps in Minneapolis last month.

Asked about McLaughlin’s broadside at a press conference Friday afternoon, Mamdani sought to flip the script.

“These are policies that keep New Yorkers safe,” he said of his executive order. “These are policies that are motivated by delivering public safety, not in spite of public safety.”