New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a Spanish-language video with tips on ICE encounters, and Republican senators say he is openly helping illegal immigrants evade federal enforcement.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani used his official account to share a minute-and-a-half video telling viewers how to handle meetings with federal immigration agents. The clip, posted under @NYCMayor and dated October 23, 2026, opens with guidance framed as rights every New Yorker should know.

In the video, Mamdani speaks in Spanish and states that ICE “cannot legally enter private spaces without a judicial order.” He tells people to look for the words “United States District Court” and a judge’s signature, and suggests asking agents to “pass the order under the door.”

The New York Post reported that the mayor also advised remaining silent, asking “Am I free to go?” during street stops, refusing to sign documents without a lawyer, and using the city’s legal support hotline. He closed by affirming New Yorkers’ “right to protest” and pledging to “protect that right.”

The post text read: “If you encounter ICE, here's what every New Yorker should know.”

Senators say the clip aids lawbreakers, not lawful residents

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida called the video “Unbelievable” and went further on the mayor’s intent.

Scott wrote that “The Mayor of New York is openly helping illegal aliens evade [ICE] and undermine the law.” He added that radical Democrats are doing everything in their power to recreate Biden’s open border disaster.

“The Mayor of New York is openly helping illegal aliens evade [ICE] and undermine the law.”

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah focused on what the video left out. Lee said no one in the clip is urged to abide by the laws of the United States, “Because it was not made for the benefit of the people of the United States.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio answered with one word: “Treason.”

That reaction fits a larger pattern in which City Hall has treated immigration enforcement as a political fight rather than a basic duty, a tension also visible when Bronx neighbors rejected the mayor’s claim that an ICE shooting suspect counted as a New Yorker.

House member ties the video to taxpayer-funded sanctuary habits

Rep. Nick LaLota of New York said the mayor used “taxpayer resources to instruct illegals, in Spanish, how to evade accountability.”

LaLota linked the video to earlier choices, open-border policies, the end of Remain in Mexico, sanctuary rules, and free hotels, health care, and lawyers for illegal immigrants. He said those decisions are not compassion and are making the country more like France, with House Democrats in on it. “NYC is becoming more like Paris every day,” he wrote.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the message dangerous.

“Dangerous incitement full of disturbing falsehoods by communist terrorist supporter.”

Fitton added that the statement could put lives in danger.

Voters watching the same City Hall have already seen limited results on other street-level problems, including Queens residents demanding a crackdown on the Roosevelt Avenue prostitution corridor.

Fox and Breitbart flag the same coaching points

Fox News highlighted the mayor delivering an anti-ICE message in Spanish that informs illegal immigrants about ways to avoid ICE detection and enforcement.

Breitbart reported additional detail from the same video: Mamdani said ICE cannot enter private spaces such as homes, hospitals, churches, or private areas of workplaces without a judicial order, and told viewers to state non-consent if no order exists.

Breitbart also quoted the mayor on street stops: people have the right to remain silent, should ask whether they are free to go, and should walk away calmly if the agent says yes. The coverage matches the hotline referral and the instruction not to sign papers without a lawyer.

The guidance arrives while Mamdani has joined other sanctuary leaders in court fights against federal immigration rules, including the push in which Mamdani and sanctuary cities sued to block the Trump public charge rule.

What the mayor told viewers, step by step

The video walks through a short checklist. Private spaces are off-limits without a court order carrying the right court name and a judge’s signature. On the street, stay silent and test whether the stop is voluntary. Do not sign. Call the city legal line. Protest is protected, and the mayor says he will guard that right.

None of the quoted Republican responses treat those lines as neutral civics. They treat them as coaching for people who are already here illegally and want to stay out of federal custody.

Meanwhile, federal cases keep showing how prior New York arrests and illegal entry can reconnect to later crimes elsewhere, as when DHS described a rideshare driver charged in a Maryland rape who had entered illegally and carried a prior NYC arrest.

City Hall’s own output record has drawn separate scrutiny for thin results and heavy social-media focus, including coverage of how Mamdani signed one law in 10 months while chasing short-form video.

Accountability runs one direction at City Hall

Mamdani presented the clip as basic information for New Yorkers. Scott, Lee, LaLota, Moreno, and Fitton heard a different message: official help for illegal immigrants who want to frustrate ICE.

The mayor shared a city hotline and stressed protest rights. He did not, in the material reported, urge compliance with federal immigration law or cooperation with lawful removal orders.

That gap is the whole fight. A mayor can talk about warrants and silence. He cannot erase the fact that ICE exists to enforce statutes Congress already wrote. When the city’s highest office posts Spanish instructions on doors, signatures, and walking away, critics hear a sanctuary playbook, not a public-safety briefing.

Lawful residents and taxpayers still pay the bill when local leaders treat border enforcement as optional. Mayors who coach resistance should not act surprised when senators call it what it is.