NYC mayor says city doesn't need ICE because it has NYPD -- same NYPD he called for defunding

Maria Hinojosa and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

During an interview released Friday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said ICE should be abolished, declaring the agents aren't needed within the five boroughs because he said the NYPD was there to ensure public safety. 

Mamdani's comments came in a discussion on NPR's Latino USA podcast hosted by Maria Hinojosa, who questioned the mayor about immigration enforcement in New York City. 

"I firmly believe that ICE should be abolished, that we should have an answer to the question of immigration with humanity at the heart of it and that I will not sit here alongside you and proclaim that the only way to respond to it is an agency that I'm older than," the 33-year-old mayor said. "We will continue to make clear that our city is not going to assist ICE in civil immigration."

He went on to say ICE enforcement is narrative driven, and claimed he told the same to President Trump when the two met in the Oval Office. "And I shared that with the president directly, said we have the NYPD in our city when it comes to public safety. We are focused on this and delivering this. ICE does not assist in that work."

Mamdani's past comments about the NYPD would seem to undermine his present-day remarks about the city's police department and "public safety." He is on the record saying on multiple occasions that the NYPD should be defunded. 

"Queer liberation means defund the police," he posted on X, then known as Twitter in late 2020, according to Fox News. Earlier that year, Mamdani, during pride month, posted harsh words for the NYPD on Twitter, going so far as to say, "the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety."

In the interview released on Friday, Mamdani went on to boast about New York having "sanctuary city policies." Hinojosa did not press him at all during the 23-minute interview on any of his previous statements condemning the NYPD and saying that the city's police force was antithetical to public safety. The conversation largely centered after that on why Mamdani likes to speak Spanish as well as pizza, bagels, tacos, the World Cup, and pride month. But Mamdani did say he thinks Puerto Rico should be allowed to vote on its independence, and said he hopes to see AOC run for president. 

Watch the full interview here and see a highlight from it below.