(New York) The three candidates for mayor of New York denounced, during their second and final debate on Wednesday, an operation by the federal immigration police against illegal sellers on a shopping street in the city.
Nine African immigrants suspected of being in an irregular situation were detained on Tuesday following this operation “focused on criminal activities linked to the sale of counterfeits,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Homeland Security.
Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani called ICE an “irresponsible entity that cares little about the law and even less about the people it is supposed to serve.”
His opponents Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running as an independent, and Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, believed that it was up to the New York police to carry out this type of operation.
PHOTO HIROKO MASUIKE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Andrew Cuomo
Mr. Cuomo added that, if he had been mayor, he would have called Donald Trump, at the origin of these raids against illegal immigrants across the country, to tell him that he was “going over the line” and to tell him to “call back” the federal police.
Zohran Mamdani estimated that the president was “seeking to declare war” on New Yorkers.
Donald Trump regularly speaks out about the municipal election in the largest city in the United States to denigrate the favorite whom he describes as “communist”.
PHOTO HIROKO MASUIKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zohran Mamdani
“Here is the good news: he will have to go through the White House (…) and we will see what happens,” said the president again in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
After the intervention of the immigration police, demonstrations were held in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
“It is really important to show our solidarity with our neighbors who are targeted by an increasingly authoritarian and corrupt state,” Emma Ehrlich, a 37-year-old protester, told AFP.
“We value immigrants, whether they are legal or irregular. They bring a lot to this city, so it is important to return the favor by being present and supportive,” she added on Wednesday.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a staunch opponent of Donald Trump, launched an online form on Wednesday to collect information, photos and videos on immigration police activities in the city.
The city council and religious leaders will hold a press conference on Thursday to ask the president “not to deploy the army or federal agents in New York”, as he has done in other major Democratic cities (Portland, Chicago, Washington, Memphis and Los Angeles).
Before voting opens on Saturday, polls show Zohran Mamdani, 34, the winner on November 4 with a lead of more than 10 points over Andrew Cuomo, former governor of the state.
During the debate on Wednesday, his opponents criticized the young politician’s lack of experience and attacked his controversial positions on Israel (described as an “apartheid regime”) or the police (once considered oversized).
