Mamdani entrusted Stanley Richards, an ex-Rikers Island inmate and former executive vice president at The Fortune Society, with overseeing the Big Apple’s jails, aiming for both a safer jail system and reform.

“That achievement is not merely symbolic,” Mamdani said of Richards’ historic appointment. “It is a testament to the thought and leadership he will bring to every member of Correction staff and incarcerated New Yorkers.”

Richards served four and a half years in prison for robbery in the late 1980s. Since then, in his role at The Fortune Society, he has worked to help prepare people for their release from prison and reentry into society.

“My experience and journey is a testament,” Richards said, “that when we provide support, when we center our collective work to hope instead of fear, when we see the best in all of us instead of judging people in the worst thing we ever done, when we see our commonality (more) than our difference, we can achieve the unimaginable.”

Of the mayor, he said, “His administration made clear that the future of Rikers (Island jail) is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing. It is safety, transparency and rehabilitation — my vision aligns fully with that mission. Safer jails today — borough-based facilities that prioritize dignity, opportunity and humanity.”

In a statement, Benny Boscio, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association union, said of Richard’s appointment, “Despite the many false narratives that have portrayed COBA as an ‘obstacle to reform,’ we have been ready, willing and able to meet and work with anyone, as long as they respect the rights of our Correction Officers and understand that their safety and security matter. … It is our hope that Mr. Richards understands that dynamic as he takes on this new role and demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology.”

Mamdani also named Dr. Alister Martin as commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Martin is an emergency physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, having previously served as an adviser in the Office of the Vice President under Kamala Harris and a White House Fellow in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

“A city is only as vibrant as it is healthy, and in Dr. Martin, an emergency room physician with extensive experience on the front lines of public health, as well as at the highest levels of government, New Yorkers will be well looked after,” Mamdani said.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies will serve as the new commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development after serving as the executive vice president of Children’s Aid.

“As commissioner of DYCD, she will do more to build after-school programs and expanding the summer youth employment program,” Mamdani said. “She will work every day to ensure that every child in this city can imagine a future of health, joy and a possibility in a place that they call home.”

Yesenia Mata, a former military police sergeant in the U.S. Army and executive director for La Colmena NYC, will serve as the new commissioner of the Department of Veterans’ Services.

“Yesenia will continue that work fighting for the 135,000 veterans who call this city home and ensuring they are able to access the housing, the health care, the supportive services that they sacrificed so much for,” Mamdani said.

Former commissioner of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Vilda Vera Mayuga will serve as the new head of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, or OATH.

“In addition to having served in state government in a number of roles where she advanced civil rights and advocated for workers, as OATH commissioner she will oversee our city’s independent administrative law court and make justice the expectation for every New Yorker,” Mamdani said of Mayuga.

ICE agents rounded up people along several blocks of Canal St., from Church St. to Lafayette St., on the borders of SoHo, Tribeca and Chinatown, shutting down the area as they conducted a raid targeting illegal street vendors, according to witnesses and ABC 7.

Bobbie Baro, a longtime vendor originally from Mauritania, who was selling knockoff Beats headphones, said when the agents showed up, “Everybody started running.” He said he didn’t run because, “I have ID.”

“ICE, they do what they want to do. They target our community,” Baro said. “They asked random people for ID. They didn’t have it and they took them down.”

“It’s a violation of a law, I never seen anything like this,” he said. “I been in the country 25 years, and Americans were never like this.”

A crowd of people gathered to protest the masked agents as dozens of ICE officers were seen detaining people. It was unclear how many people were detained in the raid, but Baro said he saw at least seven individuals taken into custody.

A witness who did not give his name said there was a “spontaneous” resistance by passersby when the ICE agents started questioning people and making arrests. He added that, along with the vendors, some “white kids” who were sticking up for them were also taken into custody.

“The crowd erupted, it was spontaneous,” he said. “They surrounded their vehicles, they weren’t letting them leave. And then they arrested some Americans.”

The witness showed the Daily News video of the arrests, saying the detainees were taken down to 26 Federal Plaza.

Sean Sweeney of the SoHo Alliance, a local community group, said the raid didn’t come as a surprise because residents have been concerned about the vendors increasingly taking up space on the sidewalk and selling counterfeit goods.

“The guys who were selling the counterfeit merchandise, it was centered on Canal and Broadway, and they were there for quite a few years,” Sweeney said. “People complained, but it was contained and it didn’t spread. For the last six months, for some reason, it has spread east all the way to Mulberry St.”

Another witness, Islam Rubel Muhammed, told the Daily News that the agents arrested men who were selling “weed and fake bags.” Canal St. is a well-known spot to buy knockoff designer handbags from sidewalk vendors.

“You can see their vehicles down the street with flashing lights. They grabbed a bunch of guys one over there, another over there, at least five by Church St. and they kept moving,” Muhammed said.

Christopher Marte, the area’s Democratic councilman, condemned the raid, calling it a “horrifying display of federal overreach.”

“ICE has no place in New York City, especially not in the heart of Chinatown, terrorizing our immigrant neighbors with military vehicles and masked agents,” he said. “This kind of escalation is unnecessary, unacceptable and antithetical to our city’s values as a sanctuary for all people. The challenges around vending on Canal St. are real and must be addressed,” Marte said, “but federal agents storming our streets and targeting community members is not the solution.”

Marte said his office has called for local enforcement to handle the issue of illegal vending, in order to protect both vendors and small businesses.

The NYPD posted on X that it “had no involvement in the federal operation that took place on Canal Street this afternoon.”

Also posting on X, Mayor Adams said, “New York City does not cooperate with federal law enforcement on civil deportations, in accordance with our local laws. While we gather details about the situation, New Yorkers should know that we have no involvement.

“Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals.”

Gov. Hochul also chastised the federal involvement.

“@realDonaldTrump claims he’s targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers,” Hochul wrote on X.

Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani decried the raid on the street vendors, posting, “Federal agents from ICE and HSI — some in military fatigues and masks — descended on Chinatown today in an aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant street vendors. Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop.”

Elected officials showed up at 26 Federal Plaza, joining a crowd in protesting the vendors’ arrests.

Comptroller Brad Lander told The News, “Street vendors are not a national security threat, but the Trump administration doesn’t think so. Trump wants to sow fear and chaos. New Yorkers are not going to stand for it.”

“This is not about public safety,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams scoffed. “They literally have military vehicles and arms. These are street vendors. This a target against Black street vendors, and it appears to be a response to a tweet,” he said, referring to hostile online posts about the vendors that he attributed to right-wingers.

“This is how we get this,” Williams said, pointing to the angry crowd of protesters stretching down the block along Broadway from 26 Federal Plaza.

ICE agents rounded up people along several blocks of Canal St., from Church St. to Lafayette St., on the borders of SoHo, Tribeca and Chinatown, shutting down the area as they conducted a raid targeting illegal street vendors, according to witnesses and ABC 7.

Bobbie Baro, a longtime vendor originally from Mauritania, who was selling knockoff Beats headphones, said when the agents showed up, “Everybody started running.” He said he didn’t run because, “I have ID.”

“ICE, they do what they want to do. They target our community,” Baro said. “They asked random people for ID. They didn’t have it and they took them down.”

“It’s a violation of a law, I never seen anything like this,” he said. “I been in the country 25 years, and Americans were never like this.”

A crowd of people gathered to protest the masked agents as dozens of ICE officers were seen detaining people. It was unclear how many people were detained in the raid, but Baro said he saw at least seven individuals taken into custody.

A witness who did not give his name said there was a “spontaneous” resistance by passersby when the ICE agents started questioning people and making arrests. He added that, along with the vendors, some “white kids” who were sticking up for them were also taken into custody.

“The crowd erupted, it was spontaneous,” he said. “They surrounded their vehicles, they weren’t letting them leave. And then they arrested some Americans.”

The witness showed the Daily News video of the arrests, saying the detainees were taken down to 26 Federal Plaza.

Sean Sweeney of the SoHo Alliance, a local community group, said the raid didn’t come as a surprise because residents have been concerned about the vendors increasingly taking up space on the sidewalk and selling counterfeit goods.

“The guys who were selling the counterfeit merchandise, it was centered on Canal and Broadway, and they were there for quite a few years,” Sweeney said. “People complained, but it was contained and it didn’t spread. For the last six months, for some reason, it has spread east all the way to Mulberry St.”

Another witness, Islam Rubel Muhammed, told the Daily News that the agents arrested men who were selling “weed and fake bags.” Canal St. is a well-known spot to buy knockoff designer handbags from sidewalk vendors.

“You can see their vehicles down the street with flashing lights. They grabbed a bunch of guys one over there, another over there, at least five by Church St. and they kept moving,” Muhammed said.

Christopher Marte, the area’s Democratic councilman, condemned the raid, calling it a “horrifying display of federal overreach.”

“ICE has no place in New York City, especially not in the heart of Chinatown, terrorizing our immigrant neighbors with military vehicles and masked agents,” he said. “This kind of escalation is unnecessary, unacceptable and antithetical to our city’s values as a sanctuary for all people. The challenges around vending on Canal St. are real and must be addressed,” Marte said, “but federal agents storming our streets and targeting community members is not the solution.”

Marte said his office has called for local enforcement to handle the issue of illegal vending, in order to protect both vendors and small businesses.

The NYPD posted on X that it “had no involvement in the federal operation that took place on Canal Street this afternoon.”

Also posting on X, Mayor Adams said, “New York City does not cooperate with federal law enforcement on civil deportations, in accordance with our local laws. While we gather details about the situation, New Yorkers should know that we have no involvement.

“Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals.”

Gov. Hochul also chastised the federal involvement.

“@realDonaldTrump claims he’s targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers,” Hochul wrote on X.

Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani decried the raid on the street vendors, posting, “Federal agents from ICE and HSI — some in military fatigues and masks — descended on Chinatown today in an aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant street vendors. Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop.”

Elected officials showed up at 26 Federal Plaza, joining a crowd in protesting the vendors’ arrests.

Comptroller Brad Lander told The News, “Street vendors are not a national security threat, but the Trump administration doesn’t think so. Trump wants to sow fear and chaos. New Yorkers are not going to stand for it.”

“This is not about public safety,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams scoffed. “They literally have military vehicles and arms. These are street vendors. This a target against Black street vendors, and it appears to be a response to a tweet,” he said, referring to hostile online posts about the vendors that he attributed to right-wingers.

“This is how we get this,” Williams said, pointing to the angry crowd of protesters stretching down the block along Broadway from 26 Federal Plaza.