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ICE is recruiting NYPD officers after Zohran Mamdani’s victory

<i>Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource</i><br/>A New York Police Department officer patrols on a subway platform in New York on August 23.

By CNN Newsource

Published November 7, 2025 1:11 pm

By Austin Culpepper, CNN

(CNN) — US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory to recruit police officers to leave the New York Police Department.

On Friday, ICE posted a recruitment message to social media calling on police officers to “Defend the Homeland” and “work for a President and a Secretary who support and defend law enforcement—not defund or demonize it.”

ICE’s message references Mamdani’s history of police criticism, including his past support for defunding the NYPD. In June 2020, Mamdani posted on X: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”

CNN has reached out to Mamdani’s transition team for comment.

Mamdani has also previously accused the NYPD of international corruption and collaboration with the state of Israel. In a 2023 clip Mamdani said, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.” In October, he told CNN he was referencing training tactics, and did not actually believe the NYPD was actively working with the IDF.

In the closing months of his campaign, Mamdani made a concerted effort to reach out to law enforcement and backtrack from his previous stances. He also committed to retaining current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” Mamdani told reporters in August. Mamdani also publicly apologized to New York police officers, walking back past comments calling them “racist,” “wicked” and “corrupt.”

Mamdani has been a vocal critic of ICE, telling CNN he would not allow the NYPD to engage or cooperate with ICE on civil immigration enforcement.

ICE’s attempts to hire NYPD officers are the latest efforts from the Department of Homeland Security to hire thousands more deportation officers after receiving $75 billion in federal funding from Trump’s sweeping agenda bill this summer.