A proposal by Mayor Eric Adams would limit New York’s sanctuary city policy by requesting that immigrants who are “suspected” of serious crimes be turned over to federal immigration agents.
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Republicans who have long opposed illegal immigration praised him right away for his demand for a reversal of the regulations, which is his most direct criticism to date of policies that shield individuals from deportation.
Mayor Eric Adam noted to reporters, “I want to go back to the standards of the previous mayors who I believe subscribe to my belief that people who are suspected of committing serious crimes in this city should be held accountable.”
Concerning due process for those facing criminal charges, the mayor went on, “They didn’t give due process to the person that they shot or punched or killed.”
Sanctuary city rules, implemented by former mayors Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg, permitted police to detain and hold suspects longer to file a detainer request with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
However, the regulations in place, which were implemented by Bill de Blasio, Adams’ immediate predecessor, essentially shield individuals from federal inspection unless they are found guilty of serious crimes.
Adams, a former captain of the New York Police Department, has emphasized that most immigrants and asylum seekers residing in the city follow the law, but he has denounced those who attack law enforcement officials and repeat offenders.
In a video that went viral last month, he expressed alarm at a migrant attack on two police officers. But he hadn’t been more detailed until Tuesday, when, in a routine news briefing, his general counsel Lisa Zornberg enumerated the distinctions between sanctuary city laws from the Koch and de Blasio administrations.
The 2014 and 2017 laws “essentially place strong limitations on the city’s ability to cooperate or to provide even just notification to federal authorities,” Zornberg stated.
A tourist was shot in a Times Square store in January, and there have been other high-profile instances involving migrants from the southern border.
Adams is a centrist Democrat, and several Republicans who have opposed sanctuary city laws welcomed him while calling for further action.
“If he’s serious about changing the city’s sanctuary laws, he should take executive action or give the City Council legislation to repeal the disastrous 2014 sanctuary law to untie the hands of our NYPD and allow them to cooperate with federal immigration officials who can deport these dangerous individuals
from our city,” stated in a statement Staten Island Republican Representative Nicole Malliotakis.
In a recent interview, Staten Island resident Joe Borelli, the chairman of the council Republican group, referred to the mayor’s remarks as “a welcome change”.
“It’s going to be hard for people to really justify that it’s unreasonable to expect people who’ve already come here illegally to follow our laws,” Borelli explained.
Democratic Speaker Adrienne Adams has stated that she will not take council action to abolish the more recent regulations.
“City law does not interfere in the criminal legal process nor any federal immigration law,” This month, she stated before.
Advocates for immigrants and attorneys who have opposed the politics and distortion of sanctuary city legislation became enraged.
“What Mayor Eric Adams seeks would result in local law enforcement being able to transfer New Yorkers merely suspected of a crime to ICE, upending local criminal court proceedings while perpetuating family separation and dividing communities,” In a joint statement, the Legal Aid Society and several other
public defense organizations announced.
Adams was also charged by Murad Awawdeh of the New York Immigration Coalition with “choosing to stoke division by ignoring the evidence that makes clear that fewer crimes are committed in localities with sanctuary policies.”
Like earlier remarks made by Adams on the immigration problem that has been taken up by national Republicans, his position was bolstered by GOP firebrand Charlie Kirk, who shared the following on X of the mayor: “Good for him. Now he needs to go all the way and move to abolish it.”
