For the past year and a half, since President Donald Trump took office and began enforcing immigration laws that had long been on the books, the left has turned “ICE OUT NOW” into something of a moral rallying cry. From pop star Billie Eilish at the Grammy Awards to Code Pink activists in the halls of Congress, the slogan has been repeated endlessly at protests and in political statements.
But according to a new analysis published by The Daily Wire, the very reason Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has surged into jurisdictions like New York City is not federal overreach — it’s the sanctuary policies enacted by Democratic leaders there.
Operation Rotten Apple: 2,100 arrests in one month
The piece, written by Tricia McLaughlin — who served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security — highlights what the Trump administration has dubbed Operation Rotten Apple, a focused enforcement surge in New York City.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents have arrested 2,100 illegal aliens with criminal records in New York City over the past month. Those arrested include killers, child predators, kidnappers, and narcotics smugglers, per the federal data cited in the article.
McLaughlin’s argument: if New York’s leaders were truly concerned about public safety, they would be celebrating the removal of more than 2,000 criminals from their communities. Instead, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul have spent their energy attacking the federal enforcement effort.
Sanctuary policies, explained
To understand why ICE has needed such a large presence in New York, McLaughlin points to the contrast with Florida. In most Florida jurisdictions, local law enforcement cooperates with ICE and honors detainers — meaning if a local officer arrests someone who is in the country illegally, they notify ICE, and after the individual serves their time, they can be transferred to federal custody.
That cooperation means fewer criminals on the streets and less need for a federal surge of ICE officers in the Sunshine State.
New York’s leaders, however, did the opposite. One of Mamdani’s first acts as mayor was signing an executive order that reinforced sanctuary policies and effectively cut off any New York City law enforcement cooperation with ICE to detain illegal aliens. Mamdani went even further by signing a law that banned ICE from operating at any of New York City’s 19 correctional facilities.
Then, McLaughlin writes, Mamdani “wondered why federal agents showed up in force.”
Mamdani’s response: ‘terrorizing immigrants’
Rather than welcoming the removal of convicted criminals, Mamdani this week accused ICE of “terrorizing immigrants” and “criminalizing the very act of being an immigrant,” according to the Daily Wire piece.
McLaughlin is blunt in her assessment: “That only works if you hide the rap sheets.” She notes that Mamdani’s framing conveniently omits the fact that the individuals arrested also broke U.S. immigration laws — and many have serious criminal histories.
Mamdani also claimed that if someone had committed serious crimes, the city would be in contact with the federal administration about them. But McLaughlin points out that the criminal records of those arrested tell a different story.
Who ICE arrested in New York
Among those taken into custody under Operation Rotten Apple, according to federal officials cited in the article, are:
- Bogdan Detrovich Gren — a Ukrainian national in the U.S. illegally with convictions for murder, kidnapping, and abduction resulting in death, among other crimes.
- Palvinder Singh — an illegal migrant from India convicted of rape in Germany.
- Carlos Mendez-Acosta — a Venezuelan migrant convicted of rape, per federal authorities.
- Andreas Bernal Chiquito — an illegal migrant from Colombia with past arrests for sexual conduct against a child and injuring a child under age 17.
According to DHS, the call from New York officials about those with serious crimes “never came.”
Taxpayer money for lawyers, not detainers
Instead of cooperating with ICE or honoring detainers, Mamdani and Hochul have taken $7.25 million in taxpayer money and announced they would use it to pay legal expenses for unaccompanied minors, according to the Daily Wire.
In McLaughlin’s view, that’s the tell.
“They will stage the press conference. They will pay the lawyers. They will chant ‘ICE out now’ as if immigration enforcement is not as old as our country itself,” she writes. “What they will not do is honor a detainer, hold a convicted rapist in jail, or admit that sanctuary policy put those men back on the street.”
The political stakes
McLaughlin’s piece lands in a highly charged political moment. Trump campaigned heavily on immigration enforcement and has made it a centerpiece of his second term. Democratic leaders in cities like New York have positioned themselves as defenders of immigrant communities — but critics argue their policies have real public safety consequences.
“Elections have consequences,” McLaughlin writes. “Nowhere is that clearer than immigration. Democrat politicians spent years daring Washington to enforce the law. Trump did. Now they want the law enforcement gone — and the criminals left behind.”
Her conclusion is direct: “If Mamdani and Hochul want fewer ICE officers in New York, there is a simple solution: stop releasing the criminals ICE is trying to remove.”
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-chant-ice-out-while-they-let-criminals-in