New York Immigration Advocates Welcome Court Ruling Barring ICE Office at Rikers Island
NEW YORK, New York – Immigration advocates on Friday welcomed a preliminary injunction by the Supreme Court of the State of New York barring New York City Mayor Eric Adams from opening an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at Rikers Island Correctional Facility.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.New York City Council, on April 15, filed a lawsuit requesting a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction against Mayor Adams’ Executive Order 50 allowing United States President Donald J. Trump’s ICE agency to operate an office on Rikers Island Correctional Facility that would facilitate the deportation immigrants.
The executive order was issued by New York City First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro on April 8.
On Friday, New York State Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado granted a preliminary injunction to further halt the Adams administration from implementing Executive Order 50.
The decision came after Judge Rosado previously issued an interim TRO on April 21, prohibiting the execution and negotiation of any Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) related to the executive order.
Judge Rosado then extended the TRO on April 25.
“Justice prevailed in New York City today as Mayor Adams was blocked from launching one more attack on our immigrant neighbors,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday.
“The State Supreme Court’s ruling will effectively prevent thousands of New Yorkers a year from being deported simply because they were accused, not even convicted, of a crime,” he added. “New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump’s mass disappearance agenda, which is, in fact, illegal under our local laws.
“We commend the City Council for taking bold action against this reckless move by Mayor Adams, and we will keep fighting for a future where every single New Yorker – no matter when they arrived here – can live their lives free of fear,” continued Awawdeh, stating that ICE has not operated at Rikers Island since 2014, when Local Law 58 was enacted.
He said New York City laws – created by the City Council over a decade ago – are “clear.”
“Our city cannot and must not be in the business of deportation, and, instead, our city agencies must build trust with immigrants, so they can serve all New Yorkers,” said Awawdeh, adding that “Rikers Island has a long and documented history of violence, abuse and mismanagement.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a candidate for Mayor of the City of New York in this month’s New York Democratic Primary, said Friday’s court decision to grant a preliminary injunction against Mayor Adams’ “illegal executive order represents another victory to protect public safety in New York City and New Yorkers’ Constitutional rights from Trump’s extreme overreach.
“Over the past months, we’ve witnessed the Trump administration repeatedly disregard the US Constitution, disappearing residents within our country without due process and wrongfully arresting local government officials,” she told CMC. “New Yorkers are counting on our city to protect their civil rights, and yet, Mayor Adams has attempted to betray this obligation by handing power over our city to Trump’s ICE because he is compromised.
“This attempted corrupt bargain to allow ICE to set up a center on Rikers would only make our city, and all New Yorkers, less safe,” added Speaker Adams, who is not related to Mayor Adams. “Our courts have recognized the dire threat it poses, and today’s decision marks the third time the court has ruled against Mayor Adams’ illegal executive order to conspire with Trump.
“The Council will continue to use our power and resources to protect New Yorkers from the Trump administration’s harmful agenda,” she vowed.
The City Council lawsuit contends that the executive order is “unlawful, tainted by the conflict of interest created by the corrupt bargain the mayor entered into – his personal freedom in exchange for an ICE office.
“The law is clear that the mayor is unable to cure that conflict of interest simply by delegating his authority to open an ICE office to Deputy Mayor Mastro,” it says.
Speaker Adams said Mayor Adams “clearly indicated his intention for this executive order when the Trump administration attempted to dismiss his corruption case in what prosecutors and Judge Ho saw as a quid pro quo.
“This is a naked attempt by Eric Adams to fulfil his end of the bargain for special treatment he received from the Trump administration,” Speaker Adams added. “New York cannot afford its mayor colluding with the Trump administration to violate the law, and this lawsuit looks to the court to uphold the basic standard of democracy, even if our mayor won’t.”
The City Council said that on the same day that Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered Adams’ federal corruption case dismissed without prejudice, the mayor met with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and expressed his intention to invite ICE onto Rikers via executive order.
“The political intervention in the corruption case led several top federal prosecutors to resign and assert the actions amounted to a quid pro quo,” it said.
The Council noted that Federal Judge Dale Ho, who declined to immediately dismiss the case and sought independent arguments, indicated that “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
The City Council said the executive order pertains to Local Law 58 of 2014 that prevents federal immigration authorities from maintaining an office on Rikers Island.
The mayor’s Executive Order 50 notes that Rikers Island is the site of correctional facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections (DOC) and currently houses members and associates of designated terrorist organizations among other individuals incarcerated there.
It also states that “there is historical precedent for federal law enforcement authorities to have office space and personnel on Rikers Island as recently as a decade ago; and Sections 2(m) and 2(p) of Executive Order No. 49, signed March 24, 2025, delegates to the First Deputy Mayor the authority to perform any function, power or duty of the mayor in negotiating, executing and delivering any and all agreements, instruments and other documents necessary or desirable to effectuate any of the matters for any entity within the portfolio of the First Deputy Mayor or the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, and to perform such other duties as the mayor may direct.”
Randy Mastro said that, upon his appointment as First Deputy Mayor on April 1, 2025, Mayor Adams authorized him “to determine, based on my independent assessment, whether and under what circumstances to permit federal law enforcement authorities to have a presence on Rikers Island, and I have since conducted an independent review and made that assessment.”
He said Local Law 58 of 2014, as codified in the New York City Administrative Code at section 9-131, “allows federal immigration authorities to maintain office space on land over, which DOC has jurisdiction for purposes unrelated to the enforcement of civil immigration laws.”
Mayor Adams, therefore, authorized that federal law enforcement agencies, including but not limited to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and the US Postal Inspection Service, “designate personnel to maintain office space on land over which DOC has jurisdiction for the purpose of criminal enforcement and criminal investigations only.
“Such federal law enforcement personnel shall coordinate with CIB criminal investigations and related intelligence sharing focused on violent criminals and gangs, crimes committed at or facilitated by persons in DOC custody, and drug trafficking,” Adams added.
