Source: Politics<\/p>\n
WINTRY MIX: The Knicks ticker-tape parade. World Cup festivities. Pride Month. America 250. The Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all happening this summer in New York City \u2014 and those events and more may coincide with a surge in federal immigration enforcement at the direction of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
The convergence of events as an ICE crackdown looms has not gone unnoticed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and immigrant-rights advocates who are already bracing for a hectic summer in the city.<\/p>\n
Hochul last week warned that a surge would \u201ccreate chaos\u201d especially as the World Cup was getting underway. The mayor told reporters earlier today that the city \u2014 and especially the NYPD \u2014 is prepared to handle the uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the biggest city in the country,\u201d Mamdani said at a press conference in Queens. \u201cWe are used to big events, and we are incredibly excited for this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the potential operation \u2014 teased repeatedly by Trump border czar Tom Homan \u2014 adds a different dimension to the center-of-the-world festivities and celebratory atmosphere that\u2019s pervasive in New York at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just had a lot of practice with being in the streets \u2014 thankfully celebrating,\u201d said state Sen. Pat Fahy, a Democrat. \u201cIt\u2019s New York. People are not going to tolerate any type of surge here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homan has insisted the federal government\u2019s New York campaign will be much different than the Minneapolis crackdown six months ago, which ultimately led to civil unrest and the deaths of two U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
He told SiriusXM\u2019s Chris Cuomo last week that federal immigration agents would take a refined, precision-based approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day we leave the office and we know exactly who we’re looking for, more likely where we will find them, because we have a targeted operation,\u201d Homan said. \u201cWe have a folder on each target. It’s not gonna be driving around looking for people that we have no idea who we’re looking for. It’s gonna be a well-planned, targeted operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s aggressive deportation campaign led Hochul and the Democratic-led Legislature this year to approve a package of measures meant to protect undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officers are banned from wearing masks, federal immigration authorities cannot execute civil deportation warrants in so-called sensitive locations like houses of worship, and the state moved to end cooperative agreements between local police and ICE.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re much better prepared as a result of that legislation,\u201d Fahy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve sent a very clear and strong message that ICE is not welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s those very same laws, though, that stoked Homan\u2019s plans to focus on New York. He\u2019s warned that, without cooperation with local law enforcement, ICE will need to take a much more expansive approach to deportations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all led immigration advocates to ready communities for an unpredictable summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Yorkers are going to stand up for their neighbors,\u201d said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see local communities organizing more, potentially protests, people standing up for New York and New Yorkers. This is an attack on all 19 million New Yorkers.\u201d \u2014 Nick Reisman with Gelila Negesse<\/p>\n
POLICING PARTY CITY: Days after being sworn in as mayor, Mamdani declared that his promise to abolish the NYPD\u2019s Strategic Response Group wasn\u2019t up for debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to disband the SRG,\u201d he said on Jan. 28<\/a> after the unit had been involved in arresting anti-ICE protesters. \u201cI\u2019m currently in conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we do so that are operational.\u201d<\/p>\n Six months later, the SRG remains intact \u2014 and Mamdani is singing a very different tune.<\/p>\n When asked today if it was appropriate for the police department to deploy the SRG in response to the chaos following the Knicks\u2019<\/a> NBA Finals victory, the mayor had this to say: \u201cThe NYPD handled themselves appropriately in delivering safety across the five boroughs.”<\/p>\n Mamdani told reporters he remains committed to the idea of \u201cdecoupling\u201d the SRG\u2019s protest responsibilities from its counterterrorism duties and that he continues to talk with his NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, about how \u201cto disband SRG to ensure that we have responses to each.\u201d He did not give a timeline for how soon that could happen or elaborate on the nature of the holdup, though.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s thumbs up for the SRG\u2019s response to Saturday\u2019s Midtown mayhem speaks to the awkward terrain he\u2019s navigating as his more politically moderate police commissioner continues to reject his push for breaking up the unit.<\/p>\n Tisch, in fact, has continued to publicly and privately praise the SRG as a critical tool in the NYPD toolbox. On Sunday, she gave members of the unit a salute in a department-wide email thanking officers for their work the night before, when frenzied Knicks fans set fire to or destroyed several school buses in Midtown, smashed NYPD vehicles with bats and even fired shots in Times Square, wounding a 17-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cYou managed to meet the challenges that came with one of the most closely watched periods this city has seen in years,\u201d Tisch wrote in the email obtained by Playbook that included a shoutout to those engaged in \u201cSRG disorder-control response.\u201d<\/p>\n While pushing for breaking up the SRG as a mayoral candidate last year, Mamdani noted the unit\u2019s members face disproportionately high rates of misconduct claims, especially as it relates to violating protesters\u2019 First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n In dragging his feet on the SRG issue, Mamdani has put himself at odds with his own political base.<\/p>\n The local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America issued a rare public rebuke<\/a> of the mayor Friday for not making good on his campaign pledge to eliminate the SRG.<\/p>\n The DSA\u2019s statement also knocked Mamdani for not fulfilling a separate campaign pledge to abolish the NYPD\u2019s gang database (which critics say is a \u201cdrag net\u201d for young Black and Latino New Yorkers, but which Tisch touts as a necessity). On top of that, the DSA \u2014 Mamdani\u2019s \u201cpolitical home\u201d \u2014 also took aim at him for supporting an increase to the NYPD\u2019s uniformed headcount this year despite having promised as a candidate to keep it flat. \u2014 Gelila Negesse and Chris Sommerfeldt\u00a0<\/p>\n GUN BILL SURVIVES: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a New York law aimed at opening up gun companies to civil liability suits.<\/p>\n Federal law has made the firearms industry generally immune to lawsuits since 2005. But state Sen. Zellnor Myrie proposed a workaround in 2021<\/a>, authoring a statute to expand New York\u2019s ability to sue manufacturers and dealers whose \u201creckless\u201d actions endanger public safety.<\/p>\n The law that passed was quickly challenged by the gun industry. A series of lower courts have upheld the law in recent years, and the Supreme Court has now decided it won\u2019t consider an appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cFor New Yorkers and residents of the ten other states that have adopted similar laws \u2014 covering close to 117 million Americans \u2014 this serves as affirmation for victims, survivors, and communities across the nation that live with the realities of gun violence on a daily basis,\u201d Myrie said in a statement. \u201cWe are not helpless. Gun violence is not inevitable.\u201d \u2014 Bill Mahoney<\/p>\n \u2014 ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: Progressives Champions PAC, which has spent nearly $400,000 in attack ads against NY-17 Democratic candidate Cait Conley, is reportedly funded by Republican groups. (Popular Information<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 MAKE IT MAKE CENTS: Mamdani\u2019s administration will no longer delay billions of dollars in repayments to contracted nonprofits. (NBC New York<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 INSURANCE SCRAMBLE: Federal cuts will leave 450,000 New Yorkers enrolled in the state\u2019s Essential Plan without healthcare coverage beginning next month. (New York Focus<\/a>)<\/p>\n Missed this morning\u2019s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\nFrom the Capitol<\/h3>\n
IN OTHER NEWS<\/h3>\n