New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared that he is willing to work with the Trump administration to help crack down on illegal migrant crime, but a fellow Democrat is pushing him to prove he means what he’s saying.
Adams said Tuesday that he is prepared to sit down with soon-to-be border czar Tom Homan to discuss the incoming administration’s plans to deport criminal illegal migrants out of the Big Apple, and he dared his opponents to “cancel me” if they aren’t happy with it. However, NYC Council Member Robert Holden, a Democrat and co-chairman of the moderate Common-Sense Caucus, responded by pushing the mayor to “show his commitment” by rolling back a number of sanctuary policies that are holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents back. (RELATED: ‘I Am Traumatized’: Migrants In Mexico Choosing To Turn Around After Trump’s Election Victory)
“Tough talk is good, but actions speak louder,” Holden said in a Wednesday statement. “The Mayor had the chance to amend or repeal sanctuary city laws through his Charter Revision Commission but chose not to.”
“Now, it’s time to right these wrongs,” Holden continued. “To truly show commitment to public safety, Mayor Adams should reopen the ICE office at Rikers Island and give the NYPD, DOC [Department of Corrections], and DOP [Department of Probation] the ability to communicate with ICE and honor detainers for criminal migrants.”
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 11: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officers arrest an undocumented Mexican immigrant during a raid in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on April 11, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
NYC’s status as a sanctuary city has long been a contentious issue with local leaders, especially in recent months as a spate of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal migrants have become national headlines.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014 signed into law a bill that largely prohibits the New York Police Department from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, and he enacted legislation in 2018 that doubled down on the policy. A major facet of de Blasio’s sanctuary city rollout was the eviction of ICE agents from Rikers Island, a major prison facility located in The Bronx.
Barring ICE agents from prison facilities makes their job incredibly more difficult and dangerous because they are forced to make apprehensions of criminal migrants out in the public, federal immigration authorities argue.
NYC has been hit particularly hard by the national immigration crisis. Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers have landed in the Big Apple since 2022 and officials have burned through billions of taxpayer dollars trying to manage the situation, according to city officials. The crisis has forced Adams to grow increasingly less sympathetic to the city’s sanctuary laws.
However, when Common Sense Caucus members introduced legislation earlier this year that would’ve rolled back sanctuary city legislation, it went nowhere in the NYC Council, which is dominated by liberal lawmakers. Members of the moderate caucus group said Adams could’ve done more to bring the issue to voters when he created the Charter Revision Commission, which had the authority to hand the decision to voters by placing it on the November ballot.
“The fact is that our city’s sanctuary city status has become deeply unpopular, even among Democrat voters, and was almost certain to be defeated by voters if a vote was allowed,” GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation in July after the Commission opted not to include a referendum on the sanctuary city laws this year.
“But once again, the party which lectures us about ‘democracy’ is not actually interested in practicing it,” she continued.
In response to Homan’s declaration that he would not tolerate sanctuary city leaders getting in the way of his upcoming crackdown on illegal immigration, Holden wrote a letter to Adams, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other local leaders urging them to change course because “federal statute explicitly prohibits the harboring, shielding, or concealing of illegal aliens, particularly those engaged in criminal activities.”
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