More than 100 elected officials join an appeal to private garage operators after the Marble Hill shooting. The request builds on restrictions already covering city property.
NEW YORK | Mayor Zohran Mamdani is asking the NYC parking owners of New York City’s private parking lots and garages to stop providing space for federal immigration operations, moving the city’s dispute with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into facilities beyond City Hall’s control.
The Oct. 16 announcement says more than 100 elected officials joined the appeal, which went to more than 1,000 owners and operators across the five boroughs.
“Do not rent your property to ICE. Do not lend it to them,” Mamdani said.
The mayor’s office tied the request to the Oct. 8 shooting of Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill. It said agents had reportedly used a nearby private parking lot to prepare for operations. The new appeal asks businesses to deny that kind of staging access.
A request to private owners
The letter, dated Oct. 16, asks operators to tell ICE directly that it is not authorized to use their facilities. It cites two bank parking lots on Northern Boulevard in Queens and a Manhattan garage on Morton Street as examples of private sites used by the agency.
According to the letter, the Morton Street operator removed ICE vehicles after neighbors objected. City leaders point to that decision as a model for other businesses.
Signers include U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Comptroller Mark Levine and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, along with other federal, state and city officials.
The appeal is voluntary. It does not announce a new citywide prohibition on private garages or identify penalties for owners who decline the request.
What police said about the shooting
At an Oct. 8 news conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department’s preliminary investigation found that at least one ICE agent fired seven rounds, striking the 28-year-old Belgal in the neck. A 5-year-old boy was inside the vehicle. Police later found the child safe with a family member.
Tisch said city cameras showed Belgal backing toward a parking space before a plainclothes federal officer approached with a gun drawn. A second officer approached near the driver’s-side headlight. The car then moved forward and out of the camera’s view. The cameras did not record the gunfire itself, she said.
She also reported damage to an ICE vehicle. Tisch said NYPD officers were not part of the federal operation before the shooting and arrived afterward, provided aid and took Belgal to a hospital, where he arrived in stable condition. She stressed that the information was preliminary and said federal authorities had taken over the investigation.
The accounts remain disputed. The Associated Press reported that Homeland Security officials said officers fired after Belgal hit two government vehicles and accelerated toward officers. His Legal Aid Society attorneys gave a different account in an Oct. 14 court filing, alleging that an officer approached without identifying himself and fired into the car. Those competing claims should not be treated as settled findings.
How the appeal fits the city’s earlier actions
The parking letter draws a distinction between private property and city-controlled facilities. It says existing state and local rules limit city property to city purposes and generally prevent non-city law enforcement from using it as an operations base without a judicial warrant or a limited legal exception.
In February, Mamdani issued Executive Order 13 requiring an audit of how city agencies interact with federal immigration authorities. The administration released its findings on May 22.
That review covered agencies including the NYPD, Department of Correction, Department of Social Services and NYC Health + Hospitals. The administration said existing safeguards had largely worked, while identifying gaps that needed stronger protocols and training.
Among the adopted recommendations, Social Services was to update rules and staff training for access to city property and parking lots. The NYPD was to establish a process for routing immigration-related 911 calls to department operations and legal leadership. Health + Hospitals was to develop guidance for situations in which ICE brings someone to its facilities for medical care.
The Oct. 16 letter extends that effort through an appeal to private businesses, whose facilities are outside the city-property rules described by the administration.
Where New Yorkers can find legal help
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs lists free, confidential immigration legal assistance through its hotline at 800-354-0365. Residents can also call 311 and ask for immigration legal help. Language assistance is available.
The office provides multilingual guides on encounters with immigration agents, workplace issues, detention and the city’s sanctuary laws. Those resources can help residents find qualified assistance for their individual circumstances.
Reporting is based on the linked city announcement, parking-owner letter, NYPD briefing, city audit release, immigration-resource page and attributed Associated Press reporting. The graphics are original explanations, not photographs of an enforcement operation.
