A sweeping executive order, a Know Your Rights campaign, and a new interagency team signal a city at war with immigration enforcement
The 13th Executive Order and What It Says About This Mayor
On February 6, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood before nearly 400 faith leaders gathered at the New York Public Library for the city’s annual Interfaith Breakfast and signed his 13th executive order since taking office. It was his first major immigration action, and it was sweeping. By the time he finished speaking, New York City had a new legal architecture around immigration enforcement that represented one of the most assertive sanctuary city declarations any American mayor had made.
What the Executive Order Does
The order establishes several distinct layers of protection for immigrant New Yorkers. ICE and other non-city law enforcement agencies are barred from entering any New York City property without a judicial warrant. That prohibition covers schools, hospitals, shelters, parking lots, and all other city-controlled or city-operated spaces. City agencies are prohibited from sharing data collected for city purposes with federal immigration authorities except where specifically required by law. Every agency has 14 days to appoint a privacy officer and complete a compliance audit. NYPD, Department of Correction, Administration for Children’s Services, Department of Social Services, and Department of Probation are each directed to audit their internal policies on immigration cooperation and make any necessary changes public. According to the NYC Mayor’s Office, the order also establishes the Interagency Response Committee, a new coordinating body chaired by First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, to plan and respond to crises involving federal immigration enforcement.
The Know Your Rights Campaign
Alongside the executive order, Mamdani launched a Know Your Rights campaign distributing over 30,000 multilingual flyers and booklets to faith institutions across the five boroughs. The materials are available in ten languages targeting the communities most frequently affected by ICE enforcement actions. They cover the right to remain silent, the right to request a judicial warrant before allowing entry, the right to speak with an attorney, and the right to request an interpreter. Mamdani told the assembled faith leaders to distribute the materials to their congregants without restriction, including to citizens who might not believe they are targets of immigration enforcement. The explicit inclusion of citizens in the Know Your Rights distribution reflects a documented reality that ICE enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other cities have resulted in the detention and, in two cases, killing of American citizens through mistaken identity and racial profiling.
The Federal Response
The Department of Homeland Security’s response was swift and pointed. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement condemning the executive order as a policy that would turn New York City into a shield for violent criminals to reoffend. She cited 7,113 undocumented immigrants in New York jurisdictions with active federal detainers, including individuals charged with or convicted of serious crimes. The political framing of sanctuary policies as public safety threats is one the Trump administration has applied to every sanctuary jurisdiction in the country. Federal courts have consistently ruled that the federal government cannot compel state and local governments to enforce immigration law, upholding the legal basis for sanctuary policies under the anti-commandeering doctrine established in Printz v. United States. Mamdani has acknowledged that sanctuary policies do not prevent ICE from operating in the city; they prevent city agencies from actively cooperating with those operations.
The ICE Response Team Takes Shape
In March 2026, the administration posted three job listings for the Interagency Response Committee: a Senior Advisor, Senior Program Advisor, and Senior Program Manager, with salaries ranging from $110,000 to $185,000 per year. The team will report to First Deputy Mayor Fuleihan and work alongside Faiza Ali, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and representatives from every city agency. The operational mandate of the committee includes pre-crisis planning, real-time coordination during enforcement surges, and public communication designed to keep New Yorkers informed without creating panic.
The Broader National Context
New York’s executive order places it alongside Chicago, Los Angeles, and several other large American cities that have taken formal action to limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration’s second term. The National Immigration Law Center has documented the legal landscape of sanctuary policies across the country, noting that municipalities have broad discretion under constitutional law to decline voluntary cooperation with federal immigration enforcement while remaining obligated to comply with valid judicial warrants. Mamdani’s order is notable for its breadth, its explicit invocation of his own Muslim faith and its narrative of migration, and its direct confrontation with DHS rhetoric about public safety.
