In response, sources say Tisch directed NYPD officers to avoid the ICE brokers as they bore down on the busy downtown thoroughfare and arrested 9 allegedly undocumented road distributors — a chaotic operation that drew mass protests and marked one of many Trump administration’s most aggressive immigration crackdowns within the metropolis up to now.
Tisch, who has served as NYPD commissioner since Mayor Adams appointed her in November 2024, didn’t violate any sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines by getting a heads up concerning the Oct. 21 operation or appearing on that info.
In truth, an NYPD spokeswoman mentioned Thursday that Tisch ordered officers to stay on the sidelines as a way to adjust to such legal guidelines, which bar town from serving to the feds with civil immigration enforcement, and, conversely, to additionally keep away from any type of standoff between ICE brokers and metropolis cops.
Nonetheless, the revelation that Tisch had advance information of the Trump administration’s Canal St. raid may elevate quite a few difficult questions for Zohran Mamdani, the mayoral-elect who has mentioned he desires to maintain Tisch on as NYPD commissioner as soon as he takes workplace Jan. 1.
Federal brokers conduct an immigration sweep on Canal Avenue within the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photograph/Jake Offenhartz)
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has vowed to as mayor battle President Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda to attempt to cease detentions of undocumented New Yorkers not accused of significant crimes. On Wednesday, Mamdani even mentioned he desires particular person ICE brokers to know that below his administration they’ll “be held accountable” legally in the event that they violate any native legal guidelines.
When requested throughout final month’s second and remaining mayoral debate particularly what he would have performed in response to the Canal St. raid if he was mayor, Mamdani known as ICE a “reckless entity” that “cares little for the law” earlier than including: “What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government, which we’ve seen under Mayor Adams.”
Requested Thursday about Tisch’s communications with the feds earlier than the Canal St. raid, a Mamdani spokeswoman, who insisted on anonymity, mentioned the mayoral-elect believes she acted appropriately and desires she would do the identical factor if the same scenario arises sooner or later, citing the necessity to not have the NYPD help the feds in immigration enforcement.
Zohran Mamdani speaks exterior the Islamic Cultural Heart of the Bronx Friday, Oct. 24, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
However the truth that Tisch acquired phrase of the raid beforehand comes as she nonetheless reviews to Adams, who has publicly dedicated to not publicly criticize Trump and received his corruption indictment quashed by the president’s Division of Justice this previous spring.
It’s unclear if the Trump administration can be inclined to offer that very same kind of advance discover to Tisch about any ICE exercise if she’s police commissioner below Mamdani, who has been maligned by the president as “a communist.”
ICE spokespeople didn’t return requests for remark Thursday.
Trump has threatened to deploy the Nationwide Guard, along with ICE, to New York Metropolis within the occasion of a Mamdani mayoral election, saying his administration would wish to “clean up” town if he took over the reins at Metropolis Corridor.
Tisch — who hasn’t but mentioned whether or not she’s going to settle for Mamdani’s provide to stay NYPD commissioner — came upon concerning the Canal St. raid roughly 4 hours prematurely of it enjoying out, with a federal legislation enforcement official within the Trump administration informing her of the plans in a personal dialog, in keeping with a number of sources aware of the matter.
The NYPD spokeswoman confirmed “New York-based federal law enforcement partners” knowledgeable Tisch of the raid earlier than it occurred.
Tisch then advised the mayor’s workplace of what she had realized earlier than additionally issuing the directive to NYPD personnel, the sources mentioned.
NYPD officers stayed away from the ICE raid as ordered.
Later, the NYPD was available as a big group of protesters gathered that night at 26 Federal Plaza, the federal immigration company’s headquarters, the place ICE transported these detained.
The NYPD spokeswoman mentioned Tisch disclosed her superior information of the Canal St. raid throughout a current assembly with Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Public Security Committee Chairman Yusef Salaam and Council Immigration Committee Chairwoman Alexa Aviles.
Additionally in that assembly, the spokeswoman mentioned Tisch advised the speaker and the opposite Council members that the Canal St. incident was “a perfect example” of the “critical role” the NYPD is enjoying in making certain public security within the metropolis as a way to forestall the Nationwide Guard from being deployed to the 5 boroughs by Trump.
