Tuesday’s federal immigration raid on street vendors in Chinatown kicked off Wednesday night’s heated second and final mayoral debate, hosted by Spectrum News NY1. The action, which swept up many African immigrants, marks the first time that there’s been a major ICE crackdown in the city, outside of the arrests taking place at immigration court in lower Manhattan. Notably, however, immigration issues were only brought up in the first 1o minutes of the debate.
Asking the debate’s first question, moderator Errol Louis noted that some in the community said the “vendors were a major quality of life problem in the neighborhood that the NYPD had ignored,” and others called it a “dangerous and unprecedented use of federal agents in New York City.”
“So to the candidates, I’ll ask each of you to respond to this: how should the mayor and the NYPD have handled both the presence of the street vendors and then the federal action?”
Former governor and Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo called the ICE raids “way out of bounds” and said that he would have called in the NYPD to “step in and stop them.”
“You don’t send ICE in without coordinating with our police,” he said. “It’s not smart, it’s duplicative, and it’s dangerous. We don’t need ICE to do quality-of-life crimes. We don’t need them to deal or worry about illegal vendors. That’s a basic policing function for NYPD, consumer affairs, etc.”
“I would have called the president and I would have said, ‘Look, you’re way out of bounds. They’re way out of bounds. Call them back, or I’m going to have the NYPD step in and stop them, because this is not their jurisdiction here in the city of New York.’”
As for how he would deal with the potential threat of more raids by the Trump administration, the former governor used his experience working with the first Trump administration during the pandemic as an example.
Also Read: NYC Mayoral Debate: Cuomo, Mamdani, and Sliwa Clash at NBC Studios
“I’ve had a lot of dealings with President Trump, and there’s only one way to deal with him,” he said. “He puts his finger in your chest, and you have to put your finger right back in his chest.”
In one of the rare moments during the nearly two-hour-long debate, Democratic frontrunner and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani agreed with Cuomo in condemning the raid.
“ICE is a reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the people that they’re supposed to serve,” he said. “What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government, which we’ve seen under Mayor Adams. ”
Mamdani tied the raids to the city’s failure to pass a package of street vendor reform legislation that would lift the cap on street vendor permits. Currently, there are over 10,000 people waiting for vending permits.
“What we need to do is actually pass the street vending reform bills that have been in the city council, some of which this mayor has actually overridden,” said Mamdani. “That’s an example of how we can both protect street vendors, ensure quality of life, and leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of the city, as opposed to working with the president, who is looking to declare war on those same people.”
Guardian Angels founder and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa also condemned federal authorities for the raid, calling for the NYPD to increase patrols in that area, but he also criticized protesters for confronting ICE officers.
“The Fed should not have stepped into this situation,” he said. “There is not communication between the local authorities and the feds. This is a matter that should be left up to the NYPD.” Sliwa, however, who has billed himself as the tough-on-crime candidate, took a shot at New Yorkers who were on the scene and actively tried to push back on Tuesday’s raid. “We can’t tolerate citizens attacking our federal law enforcement forces in the street, because then that will just lead to anarchy.”
According to the Street Vendor Project (SVP), ICE agents, equipped with assault rifles and military Humvees, arrested and detained nine people, five of whom were street vendors, many of whom have been working in the country for over 20 years.
The arrests drew widespread outrage, especially from street vendor advocates like Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, SVP’s deputy director, who criticized the city for not doing enough to protect immigrant workers.
“Immigration raid targeting Canal Street’s West African street vendors is a disgraceful federal escalation of the City’s status quo,” she said in a statement to Documented. “We have been sounding the alarm for a year about the threats New York City street vendors face under this current administration.”
City Council Member Christopher Marte, whose district includes Chinatown, also condemned the raids.
“ICE has no place in New York City, especially not in the heart of Chinatown, and is terrorizing our immigrant neighbors with military vehicles and masked agents,” he said in a statement to Documented. “This kind of escalation is unnecessary, unacceptable, and antithetical to our city’s values as a sanctuary for all people.”
Following the debate, Candis Tall, 32BJ SEIU’s executive vice president and political director, who endorsed Cuomo during the run-up to the Democratic primary and then switched to endorse Mamdani in July following his massive primary win, told Documented that she believes that the State Assemblyman was the best candidate who could protect immigrant New Yorkers.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
“Mamdani has shown that he is a fighter for our immigrant communities,” she said. “As we face ICE attacks on our communities, like yesterday’s horrific raid on Canal Street, we will need a unified local government to effectively push back. The unity that Zohran Mamdani is effectively building will make our city and immigrant communities safer and stronger during uncertain times.”
Throughout the rest of the night, the three candidates sparred on stage at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, arguing and, at times, speaking over each other when asked about various other topics, including housing, transportation, and education.
Early voting begins Saturday, Oct. 25, and will run through Sunday, Nov. 2. Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 4. To find your nearest polling site, click here.
