What Did They Say?

Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Tag: sanctuary-cities ✕

DHS Names Its New York Immigration Sweep "Operation Rotten Apple" and Says It Ran It Because the City Elected a Socialist — 2,197 Arrests, and the Governor Answers That the Federal Government Counts "Anybody Who Crossed the Border" as a Criminal

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin came to Manhattan on September 1, 2026 to announce the results of a month-long ICE surge across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley: 2,197 arrests between July 27 and August 29, in an operation the department named "Operation Rotten Apple." Mullin framed the sweep explicitly as a punishment for New York's politics rather than as routine enforcement, saying the operation was undertaken "because you have a very liberal-slash-socialist mayor here in New York City," calling New York a "crime-ridden city," and promising to send "as many people as we have possible" now that a new state law has forced local agencies out of 287(g) partnerships with ICE. Pressed on whether everyone arrested was a criminal, he answered that entering the country outside legal channels is itself the crime. Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected the arrest tally at a competing press conference the same day, with Hochul saying there is "no way" that number reflects crimes as New York defines them and Mamdani defending the city's sanctuary policies as bipartisan in origin.

“Operation Rotten Apple did what sanctuary politicians in New York refuse to do: made the Empire State safer.”

Markwayne Mullin (R) · Sep 1, 2026
immigration
ice
new-york
8 statements

Ten Days Before the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, DHS Is Still Holding Back $87 Million of New York’s Counterterrorism Money — the Governor Calls It "Defunding the Police" and the Homeland Security Secretary Says Sanctuary States Should Not Get "One Federal Penny"

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani appeared together in midtown Manhattan on September 1, 2026 to demand that the Department of Homeland Security release roughly $87 million in federal counterterrorism grant money that New York says it is still owed — about 40 percent of the state's expected allocation. New York was originally cut by $187 million, some 86 percent of what it expected. A federal court order restored roughly $100 million of that, but state and city officials say the remaining shortfall still hits NYPD counterterrorism and intelligence operations, FDNY specialized teams, National Guard deployments and bomb squads. Hochul turned the administration's own slogan back on it, saying that withholding the money amounts to "defunding the police." The state's congressional Democrats — Schumer, Gillibrand, Jeffries, Nadler, Goldman, Meng, Morelle, Latimer, Mannion and Kennedy — pressed the same point, repeatedly invoking the approaching 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. DHS answered that New York is sitting on $300 million in unspent FEMA money, and Secretary Markwayne Mullin said separately that he does not think sanctuary jurisdictions should receive "one federal penny."

“Donald Trump repeatedly claimed to be the law-and-order President. Instead, he has visited lawlessness and disorder upon the American people.”

Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) · Sep 1, 2026
homeland-security
new-york
counterterrorism
14 statements