New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned immigration enforcement efforts in a speech at an interfaith event, reaffirming the city’s sanctuary status and launching an initiative to stand with migrants.
Beginning his speech by describing how he “encountered faiths different from my own,” Mamdani stated that his “encounters” with different faith communities “only deepened as I came face-to-face with the living tapestry of faith that is New York.”
“If anything unifies every religion across our city, it is an understanding of faith not solely as a tool for reflection, but as a call to action,” he declared, going on to quote a Bible verse.
“Standing before you today, I think of Deuteronomy 10:17-18, which describes the lord as one who: ‘shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the orphan and the widow, and loves the stranger residing among you, giving them food and clothing,'” Mamdani said.
He used the verse to launch into a discussion of “cruelty that staggers the conscience,” describing activities conducted by ICE agents. Mamdani went on to ask, “If these are not attacks upon the stranger among us, what is?” The socialist mayor later quoted Exodus 23:9.
Further discussing immigration, Mamdani declared that his “own faith, Islam,” is a “religion built upon a narrative of migration.”
“The story of the Hijra reminds us that Prophet Muhammad was a stranger too, who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina. Sura An-Nahl 16:42 tells us: ‘As for those who emigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world,'” Mamdani said. “Or, as the Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers.'”
Mamdani signed an executive order aimed at “protecting New Yorkers from abusive immigration enforcement.” The order “protects the privacy and data of immigrants and all residents; bolsters restrictions on federal immigration enforcement on city property; initiates an audit to make sure city agencies are complying with sanctuary laws; and establishes a committee to coordinate crisis response across city government in the event of escalating federal immigration actions or other major events,” his office explained.
