Citing Saturday's Bushwick hospital standoff, Kumar says verbal assurances are not enough: "Put it in writing"; drop charges against protesters arrested at the scene

 

BROOKLYN, NY — Vichal Kumar, a longtime public defender and Democratic candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District, today called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to issue formal written guidance to the New York Police Department prohibiting officers from responding to, providing crowd control for, or appearing at federal immigration enforcement operations in any capacity.

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The demand follows Saturday's hours-long ICE operation at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, during which Council Member Sandy Nurse, who was at the scene, described witnessing "what appeared to be direct coordination" between NYPD officers and federal agents. Mayor Mamdani has publicly stated that NYPD did not coordinate with ICE, and called video from the scene "incredibly disturbing."

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"The Mayor has said the right things. Now he has to put them in writing," said Kumar. "Saturday made one thing clear: a verbal pledge is not enforceable when officers on the street are clearing a path for ICE in real time. Council Member Nurse saw what she saw. Hundreds of New Yorkers saw what they saw. The cameras saw what they saw. If our sanctuary law is going to mean anything, the NYPD needs a written directive that is specific, public, and enforceable, and clearly states that no officer responds to an ICE operation, period."

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Kumar, a public defender, has spent more than 20 years supporting community members, including immigrants facing detention and deportation. He said the gap between policy and practice is the central problem.

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"I've witnessed what happens when local law enforcement and ICE work together, even informally," Kumar said. "People stop calling 911, stop reporting crimes, stop showing up as witnesses, and communities pull away from the institutions meant to serve and protect them. New York's sanctuary law was written to prevent exactly that, and on Saturday night, in front of a hospital, it failed in plain sight."

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In addition to calling for the written NYPD directive, Kumar reiterated his call for Congress to end the federal 287(g) program, agreements that deputize local law enforcement as ICE agents, and for the full dismantlement of ICE.

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"Not reform. Not retrain. Not abolish as a slogan. Dismantle," Kumar said. "ICE is operating outside the law without accountability. It is now operating inside our hospitals. The detention centers, the surveillance infrastructure, the federal program that deputizes our neighbors as immigration agents, all of it has to go. And in Congress, that's the fight I'm bringing."

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Kumar also called for charges against the protesters arrested at the scene to be dropped. "Nine New Yorkers are facing criminal charges for showing up to defend a neighbor. The District Attorney should drop these charges. They saw what was happening and refused to look away. That's the community we're fighting to protect."

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About Vichal Kumar

Vichal Kumar is a civil rights attorney and longtime public defender running for New York's 7th Congressional District. The son of working-class immigrants, Kumar has spent more than twenty years representing immigrant families, tenants, and working New Yorkers, and building institutions that deliver real outcomes for the people they serve. He began his legal career at The Bronx Defenders while attending Hofstra Law at night, went on to build the Civil Defense Practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, and most recently served as Managing Director at Partners for Justice, where he scaled holistic-defense programs across the country. He is a past President of the South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABA) and the South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY). His campaign accepts no corporate PAC money and no AIPAC money.