The confrontation outside the medical facility, which left progressive groups accusing the NYPD of coordinating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in violation of local sanctuary laws, has exposed a deepening fracture between the mayor and the left flank that helped propel him into office.
Six elected Democrats who endorsed Mamdani’s 2025 campaign sent a letter to the mayor on Wednesday demanding he issue new department rules within 30 days that “clearly outline” how officers should interact with ICE agents in the field. The signatories, including Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and state Sen. Julia Salazar, wrote that they believe the NYPD “coordinated on the ground with ICE agents” during the hospital incident, a claim the mayor has rejected.
“Officers arriving at a scene where federal agents are already operating cannot be left to improvise,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was obtained by POLITICO. “They need a bright-line rule, communicated up and down the chain of command, that informs them when to disengage, when to step back, when to refuse a request for assistance, and how to document what they observed.” The letter added that the absence of such standards is “how we ended up with NYPD officers visibly working alongside ICE outside a hospital.”
The demands represent a striking public rebuke from some of Mamdani’s most loyal supporters. Senator Salazar, a fellow democratic socialist, was among the earliest backers of his 2025 mayoral bid, making her inclusion on the letter a particularly pointed signal that the mayor’s progressive base is growing restless. The lawmakers called for rules that dictate when “disengagement” and “refusal of assistance” to ICE is appropriate so officers “do not aid, facilitate, or appear to facilitate civil immigration enforcement.”
Signs of a Base in Retreat
The letter is the most visible sign yet that elements of Mamdani’s coalition are souring on his approach to public safety and his perceived drift toward the political center since taking office. One recurring source of tension has been the mayor’s decision to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a moderate technocrat who has openly disagreed with him on policy matters. Left-leaning activists and elected officials have grown increasingly uneasy with that arrangement, viewing it as a concession to establishment politics.
Other indicators of a fraying relationship have emerged in recent weeks, including discomfort in progressive circles about Mamdani’s warm rapport with figures traditionally viewed as adversaries by the left. The mayor has rejected accusations that his administration coordinated with ICE during the Brooklyn hospital episode, but the video evidence and the unified front presented by his former endorsers suggest the political damage may already be done.
The six lawmakers are now pressing Mamdani to act before the next such encounter unfolds. “The absence of such a standard, or the failure to enforce one,” they warned, will leave the city vulnerable to further violations of its sanctuary commitments. The mayor’s office has not yet indicated whether he will comply with the 30-day deadline, but the clock is ticking on a relationship that once seemed unshakable.
