ICE sweep of NYS leads to nearly 2,200 arrests, DHS secretary says

Federal agents arrested nearly 2,200 immigrants in New York State over the last month as the Trump administration’s nationwide mass deportation campaign hit record numbers, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

In an action dubbed "Operation Rotten Apple," agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies arrested 2,197 immigrants in New York State who have been living in the country illegally, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a news conference in Manhattan.

The arrests took place from July 27 to Aug. 29 on Long Island, in New York City, in the lower Hudson Valley and upstate, he said. The department did not provide a breakdown of Long Island arrests.

Arrests for illegal immigration hit an all-time high of nearly 50,000 nationwide in July, though Long Island bucked the upward trend, with a total of 72 people arrested in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to public records released by the nonprofit Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Newsday.

Arrests on Long Island peaked in January, with 322 people detained by ICE, but have been dropping, according to the most recently available data.

"Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE and our federal partners, 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," Mullin said in a statement Tuesday.

He said those arrested included murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers and violent assailants.

Newsday and other news outlets have reported that most of those arrested in the mass deportation campaign have no criminal record. Newsday has reported that less than 5% of the thousands of immigrants held in the Nassau jail through an ICE partnership were convicted of violent crimes.

White House border czar Tom Homan has threatened to "flood the zone" in New York because of a new state law that limits local law enforcement cooperation with ICE.

The law went into effect last week and, among other things, prohibits local governments from entering into "287(g)" agreements like the one adopted by Nassau. Last week, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said he was ending that partnership. 

Mullin, Homan and other officials on Tuesday attacked Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for enacting what they called "sanctuary" policies protecting people living in the country illegally.

Mamdani is "extremely out of touch with what the American people want and what public safety actually looks like," Mullin said at the news conference.

 Responding to Mullin's comments, Hochul told reporters in Manhattan: "The facts would confirm that crime has gone down in all the major categories. So we are not less safe, we are safer" in New York.

"There's not been a 287(g) agreement in New York City, ever," and the state's counties should focus on solving and preventing local crimes, Hochul said.

"And if there are cases where there are individuals who are in this country undocumented who are involved in crimes, we always have and always will make sure that we cooperate under those circumstances, always. We are not a sanctuary state for criminals," the governor said.

Mamdani, also responding to Mullin's comments, said, "I don't know how you describe a record low of murders and shootings as being anything other than something that should be celebrated," and New York City should be proud of its "sanctuary policies."

ICE is attempting to criminalize "being an immigrant" and terrorizing immigrants across the city, leaving "so many, regardless of their status, in deep fear about even leaving their home," Mamdani said.

ICE arrests dropped nationwide after agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. But in the last few months they have surged upward.