US DHS chief Markwayne Mullin says ICE arrested 2,197 immigrants in New York operation

US DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin says ICE arrested 2,197 immigrants in New York during Operation Rotten Apple. Governor Kathy Hochul challenged the administration’s claims, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused ICE of intimidating immigrants and criminalising their presence.

New York: US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 2,197 immigrants across the state of New York from late July to late August in an operation.

At a press conference in New York City on Tuesday (local time), Mullin said that “Operation Rotten Apple” did what “sanctuary politicians” in New York City and the state of New York refuse to do: made the Empire State safer, noting that the operation received no help from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul.

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“Over the course of this operation, we arrested murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and violent assailants,” Mullin said.

White House Border Czar Tom Homan said that Democratic politicians in New York and elsewhere say that they care about public safety, but will not let immigration law enforcement officers into their jails to take criminals into custody; instead, they release them to the streets. “It makes no sense.”

Hochul, meanwhile, challenged the remarks from DHS officials, saying at a separate press conference on the same day that “we’re not a sanctuary state for criminals” and accusing the administration of lying to the public, reports Xinhua news agency.

“Here’s my message to the president: Don’t undermine our public safety efforts. Don’t defund the police who thwart terror attacks. Don’t play political games with people’s lives,” Hochul said.

“Release the 87 million dollars you owe us, because if you don’t release the counterterrorism funding, you’re betraying every family that lost someone on 9/11,” Hochul said, noting that the DHS, the agency created in response to 9/11, is withholding 40 per cent of New York State’s counterterrorism funding.

Mamdani said that if anyone were to commit serious crimes, “we would be in contact with the federal administration about it.”

“What we are seeing, however, from ICE is an attempt to criminalise the very fact of being an immigrant, and we are seeing a terrorising of immigrants across our city and, frankly, across our nation, that has left so many, regardless of their status, in deep fear about even leaving their home,” said Mamdani.