Mamdani aide says NYC will cooperate with Trump on deporting only violent criminals

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: An official for socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that New York City would consider cooperating with the federal government on deportations, but only for the most brutal of offenders.

Mamdani's incoming Chief of Staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church, revealed the point of "alignment" after she and the mayor-elect met behind closed doors with President Donald Trump.

While Mamdani's team is committed to New York’s status as a sanctuary city, Bisgaard-Church suggested the issue of violent crime was a potential bridge between the Democratic Socialists and the president.

"The mayor-elect made clear that we uphold sanctuary laws in our city and all immigrants will be safe in our city," Bisgaard-Church insisted, adding that they were "clear about our disagreements in the room." She said that they made it "very clear that we feel there has been inhumane raids just this week."

However, the parties found agreement when discussing how the incoming administration would deal with federal enforcement. 

"We again grounded an overall desire and the acknowledgement that our sanctuary city laws allow cooperation in extreme violent felony cases," Bisgaard-Church said. "And that is something where I think we have alignment."

Common ground on costs

Despite their differences, Bisgaard-Church said the president was surprisingly understanding of the city's plight. The conversation was mostly centered on the crushing cost of living that is "driving New Yorkers out of the city," she said.

"The premise of the campaign was always that New Yorkers are struggling. Their lives are too hard," she said, adding that the Mayor-elect's team "hoped for an open and direct opportunity to be able to share what it would mean for the mayor-elect to achieve the affordability agenda," and were "welcomed into that conversation."

The meeting focused heavily on finding solutions to bread-and-butter issues, not ideology.

"We talked about the need to build housing to have a safe city, to have utility costs driven down, and many other ways where we can find commonality for working New Yorkers to stay in their city," Bisgaard-Church stressed. "We have been laser focused on the cost of living and that we could find hopefully common ground with the president and really speak to our intentions for how we plan to govern the city," she added.

'Mutual goal' on safety

Crime was also a top agenda item. Bisgaard-Church insisted that both sides shared a vision for a secure New York City, even discussing Mamdani's choice for police commissioner. "We discussed that we share a mutual goal of having a safe city where everyone can move around in comfort and ease," the incoming Chief of Staff said.

She added that the incoming administration plans to keep crime low and even referenced the retention of their top cop, Jessica Tisch. "We talked about her appointment and really how she has been keeping crime low, and that is exactly what we intend to do," she explained.

As for the hostile labels exchanged during the campaign trail, Bisgaard-Church said they simply avoided the topic to focus on policy. "We didn't get so far," she admitted. "We know that there have been labels thrown all around that are just simply not fair, and we kept it again at where we could find the agreement on making the city affordable."