Following a heated 10-minute news conference with Tom Homan, the incoming Trump administration “border czar,” Mayor Eric Adams said he would sign an executive order to modify the city’s sanctuary policies.
In his opening remarks, the mayor accused the media and others of misrepresenting his views. Adams has been implying in recent weeks that undocumented New Yorkers do not have the right to due process, but he subsequently retracted the claim. He stated that the city would not be a “safe haven” for individuals who had “committed crimes,” although he did not clarify if he was speaking of those who had been found guilty or just accused of a crime.
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“About 170 crimes currently allow us to communicate and collaborate with ICE after a conviction,” he added, referring to the situations under the city’s sanctuary rules that enable municipal authorities to engage with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. “We need to examine them.”
Adams, who has frequently been questioned about his views on sanctuary laws, has not been explicit about the specific offenses and situations that he thinks should allow local authorities to work with federal immigration authorities. On December 11, 2024, he made reference to targeting repeat offenders with executive orders.
Adams has been accused by several Democrats, including those running to replace the mayor, of being anti-immigrant and attempting to secure the legal support of President-elect Donald Trump as he fights federal corruption accusations.
Scott Stringer, a Democratic candidate for mayor, posted on X, “Today, as Mayor Adams talks with Trump’s border czar, New Yorkers are left wondering: is his goal at the meeting to advocate for us or to advance his own personal agenda and curry favor to get a pardon?”
A compilation of Adams’s utterances throughout the years that demonstrated his varying opinions on immigration and Trump was included in the piece.
Another mayoral contender, state Senator Jessica Ramos, also criticized Adams for his inflammatory remarks, including his claim that the city will be “destroyed” by the migrant situation. In an attempt to secure a pardon, she also charged Adams with “cozying up to the incoming administration.”
Adams’ attitude toward illegal immigrants was criticized by Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat from Manhattan who is not a known opponent, in an interview with a reporter in Washington. “The mayor, especially, should understand the importance of due process and the importance of innocent until proven guilty.”
Adams seemed enraged by the remarks.
“I think that this entire narrative has been hijacked,” he stated. “There’s a great level of distortion. People are trying to push their own agenda.”
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance frequently employ a factually incorrect talking point, which Adams stated during the same news conference.
“We have 500,000 children who have sponsors in this country that we can’t find,” Adams noted. “We can’t find them. We don’t know if they’re doing child labor. We don’t know if they’re doing sex crimes. We don’t know if they’ve been exploited. 500,000 children.”
Similar remarks were made by Trump and Vance throughout the campaign trail, which the Associated Press described as a distortion of Department of Homeland Security data. Although a somewhat smaller number of children had not been ordered to appear in court, Vance said in October that the agency had “lost” over 300,000.
As Adams modifies his attitude on immigration, the city’s sanctuary policies have seemed increasingly vulnerable. They were created in the 1980s with the goal of easing the anxieties of illegal immigrants around reporting crimes, accessing local services, and visiting a hospital.
In order to guarantee that illegal individuals facing criminal charges would be given the constitutional right to due process, the city amended its legislation in 2014. According to the policy, municipal officials may turn over illegal New Yorkers to federal authorities for a list of 170 significant offenses, but only after they have been found guilty and a judge has issued a warrant authorizing their detention.
The mayor did not specify what he may add to the list, but his suggestion that it be expanded might expose more illegal New Yorkers to deportation.
“Once we come to a full understanding of that, then we will report on it,” Adams stated.
