NEW YORK, New York – New York City Council officials have expressed concern at the decision of Mayor Eric Adams to issue an executive order allowing United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents access to Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York.
Council Speaker Adrienne AdamsTey say the move is to assist President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan that involves Caribbean immigrants.
In a joint statement, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Immigration Committee Chair Alexa Avilés and Criminal Justice Committee Chair Sandy Nurse, said that they want to “see language of any purported executive order to evaluate its legality.
“Today’s statement by the mayor only further connects it to the resignations at DOJ (US Department of Justice) over the apparent quid pro quo identified by the recently resigned US Attorney for the Southern District (Court),” they said.
The NYC Council officials said Local Law 58 of 2014 has “clear guidelines” that prohibits the use of office space on Rikers Island for the enforcement of civil immigration enforcement.
“We are prepared to defend against violations of the law, but this announcement only deepens the concern that the mayor is prioritizing the interests of the Trump administration over those of New Yorkers,” they said, adding that current city laws are specific to how and when city resources can be used for federal immigration enforcement to protect the safety of the city and its communities.
“The Council will determine its formal response based on the executive order,” they added.
Following the mayor’s meeting with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, the NYC councilors noted that the mayor announced an incoming executive order to “re-establish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island for criminal enforcement.”
They said this meeting came days after top DOJ officials “interfered” in Adams’s federal criminal case and the same day several DOJ officials resigned in protest, including the Acting US Attorney for the Southern District Court of New York.
After meeting with Homan last Thursday, Adams said: “As I have always said, immigrants have been crucial in building our city and will continue to be key to our future success, but we must fix our long-broken immigration system.
“Since the spring of 2022, New York City has been forced to shoulder the burden of a national humanitarian crisis where more than 230,000 migrants have come to our city seeking support, at a cost of approximately seven billion US dollars with little help from the previous administration,” he said.
“That is why I have been clear that I want to work with the new federal administration, not war with them, to find common ground and make better the lives of New Yorkers,” he added.
But Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), condemned the mayor’s latest action.
“He is purposely obfuscating ICE’s mandate at Rikers Island to do an end run around our local laws,” Awawdeh told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“By doing so, he just made himself complicit with the Trump administration’s detention to deportation pipeline in exchange for a Department of Justice promise to squash the five-count federal corruption charges against him.
“This is a deal made with the devil to try to roll back our city’s longstanding sanctuary laws and policies – policies that allow all New Yorkers to live freely while improving everyone’s public safety. History will not look kindly on his betrayal of our communities, shared values and commitment to due process.
“We will fight this legally dubious action with the full force of our people power, and with the elected officials in New York City who actually strive to govern,” Awawdeh said.
