Anti-ICE activists are vowing to continue campaigning to push Crye Precision out, but the tactical-apparel maker remains in place under Lindsay Greene, the Yard president and CEO, whom Mayor Zohran Mamdani reappointed last month.
The company sold cold-weather gear to U.S. Border Patrol this year, putting a fresh spotlight on the tenant as activists press Mamdani’s administration to act. Yet officials at the city-owned industrial campus say BNYDC’s leases generally constrain what can be done while a tenant remains in compliance, making a future renewal decision a potentially more consequential battleground.
Lindsay Greene, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, recently told amNewYork there has “not been any sort of edicts or pressure” from the administration over the Yard’s mission, arguing its longstanding focus on manufacturing jobs and economic mobility already aligns with Mamdani’s economic justice agenda.
That continuity has not deterred Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard, a grassroots campaign that began in September 2024 and initially focused on Crye and drone manufacturer Easy Aerial. Organizers have staged regular pickets and noise demonstrations demanding that companies that are linked to immigration enforcement and the Israeli military be removed from public land.
Speaking to amNewYork during an Aug. 5 picket, an organizer who identified herself as Iman said the group was not counting on Mamdani’s election alone to change BNYDC’s approach.
“A lot of politicians say things before they get elected, so for us, it’s not really about who’s in office,” she said, before adding, “but we don’t count on them to really enact any change.”
The fight cuts across two Mamdani priorities: protecting industrial jobs and pushing back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Since taking office, Mamdani has reinforced city sanctuary protections and repeatedly denounced federal immigration enforcement, including calling for ICE’s abolition.
On Aug. 12, he joined Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James as Hochul announced $7.25 million for legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children facing deportation, saying the federal government’s refusal to renew a contract with specialized providers was “nothing less than a deportation order.”
Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday that New York will invest $7.25 million in legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children facing deportation.Photo by Dean Moses
At the Navy Yard, however, Mamdani has opted for continuity at the top.
When Greene was reappointed in July, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su praised her for helping put public land to work for “good jobs, artists, innovators and entrepreneurs.”
The 300-acre Yard houses more than 550 businesses supporting more than 13,000 jobs, according to BNYDC. Greene said Crye, a longtime tenant, employs hundreds of people, including skilled seamstresses, and uses modern garment-production technology.
Federal records show another side of the company’s work. USAspending records show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement directly awarded Crye two purchase orders totaling $433,520.10 for uniforms and jackets beginning in 2018 and 2019.
More recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded Crye a $39,681 purchase order in January for “Crye brand cold weather apparel” for U.S. Border Patrol’s Houlton Sector in Maine. The order ran through April. Overall, USAspending lists about $3.3 million in federal awards to Crye over the trailing 12 months across 16 transactions, most from the Department of Defense.
The campaign has also focused on alleged links between Crye and the Israeli military, although the nature of that relationship is disputed.
Hyperallergic reported last year that Crye denied having contracts with the Israel Defense Forces or Israeli manufacturers. The outlet also reported that a 2023 federal court filing submitted on Crye’s behalf said its camouflage design had been adopted by armed forces including Israel, a statement Crye later told Hyperallergic was inaccurate. Hyperallergic also reported that Crye’s MultiCam website listed Israeli tactical-equipment company Agilite as a licensee.
Drop Site News separately reported in 2024 that Agilite uses the MultiCam pattern on gear it markets as being used by the Israeli military.
Crye did not respond to repeated requests from amNewYork for comment.
Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard activists regularly picket outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard and say they plan to maintain a sustained presence as they push for Crye Precision’s removal.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
On a tight lease
Greene said BNYDC’s leases generally do not give the corporation authority to govern a tenant’s customers or what those customers do with products they purchase.
Asked specifically whether Crye had come up in her conversations with Mamdani, Greene said it had not.
A City Hall source similarly said the Mayor’s Office does not get involved in individual Navy Yard leases and that evictions may only take place when tenants violate contractual requirements such as financial obligations, legal compliance or permitted uses.
However, Council Member Shekar Krishnan, chair of the Council’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, said public ownership should change the equation.
“Public land like the Navy Yard should not be doing business with companies that dress ICE officers and support ripping families apart,” Krishnan said, adding that he was exploring “all tools at our disposal to keep public land away from ICE operations.”
Asked what those tools could include, his office said it was still exploring its options.
Cornell Law School clinical professor David Reiss, a real estate law expert, who reviewed two other Navy Yard leases and BNYDC’s bylaws but not Crye’s private agreement, told amNewYork that the legal options may look very different depending on whether Crye is still in the middle of a lease or seeking another term.
“Based on other Navy Yard leases I have reviewed — not Crye’s own, which I have not seen — Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation leases can only be terminated for specific things like nonpayment, misuse of the space, or sanctions-list status, not because of who a tenant’s customers are or how they use a tenant’s products,” Reiss said.
“Lease renewal is a different question,” he added. “Landlords generally have much broader discretion about whether to keep renting to a tenant once a lease has fully run its course.”
Reiss said BNYDC would likely have broad discretion not to renew Crye, unless the company has an unexercised option giving it a contractual right to another term. A nonrenewal could still draw a lawsuit.
“Crye might argue the decision was arbitrary and capricious or exceeded BNYDC’s corporate authority under state law,” Reiss said. Federal constitutional claims involving retaliation, viewpoint discrimination or equal protection, he added, “could face significant doctrinal hurdles on these facts.”
That makes the terms of Crye’s lease, and who sits on BNYDC’s board when a renewal decision arrives, central to what happens next.
BNYDC’s bylaws allow the mayor to appoint up to 29 members, including as many as 25 discretionary appointees who serve at the mayor’s pleasure. The mayor may also remove members with or without cause.
Reiss said that structure gives Mamdani “real leverage” over such decisions even though BNYDC itself is the landlord.
When that question could arise for Crye remains unclear. amNewYork has not obtained the company’s lease, and BNYDC did not provide requested details about its expiration date, renewal rights or whether the company has an option for another term despite repeated follow-ups.
A protester outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard during an Aug. 5 demonstration calling on the city-owned industrial campus to cut ties with Crye Precision.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
For activists, Easy Aerial remains the model.
BNYDC declined to renew the drone company’s lease after a lengthy pressure campaign. Organizers claim their demonstrations helped produce the outcome, while Greene said the decision was made in late 2025 because of longstanding compliance problems and predated Mamdani taking office.
Asked whether Mamdani’s transition team or administration had a role in the decision, Greene said, “They did not have a role in the decision.”
Easy Aerial’s CEO previously told the New York Post that unnamed board members had told him in private conversations that Mamdani was behind the nonrenewal. BNYDC denied that account.
For now, organizers say the Crye campaign will continue.
“A sustained presence here is definitely vital to our campaign,” Iman said.