Mamdani, Minneapolis mayor meeting today, likely to discuss Trump’s deportation policy

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are meeting on Thursday afternoon, Mamdani said, with expected topics to include the municipal response to President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.

Frey’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the meeting between the men, both Democrats who lead Blue cities.

“I look forward to getting to know him and also to speaking about the importance of protecting each one of our residents, including the immigrants who call both of our cities home,” Mamdani said on Thursday, appearing at an unrelated event at New York City Hall. The meeting is not on Mamdani’s public schedule.

So far, New York City has avoided the surge of thousands of immigration enforcement agents in the past two months that the Trump administration has unleashed in cities like Minneapolis, which has been beset by street protests, widespread unrest and the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said the enforcement surge in Minnesota was being dialed back and that Minneapolis officials had agreed to let agents detain immigrants at local jails, a claim the city had not confirmed.

Asked at the news conference, Mamdani declined to say why a similar arrangement should not be the policy in New York City.

“I am proud of our sanctuary city policies that we have. I believe that our values and our laws are not bargaining chips. They are not things for us to be ashamed of, and they are also policies that have sought and delivered on keeping New Yorkers safe over many years,” the mayor said. “I’ll let the mayor of Minneapolis speak to the policies there.”

Last year, Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, tried to return immigration agents back onto the city’s Rikers Island jail complex — from which the de Blasio administration had booted them about a decade ago — but the idea was rebuffed by a judge and never implemented.

Details of the meeting between Frey and Mamdani — such as when, where and who else would be there — were not provided.

“I look forward to hearing about that meeting and the conversation,” said the New York City Council speaker, Julie Menin.