A leaked memo from Mayor Adams office sent to schools, shelters, and hospitals appeared to advise workers to let federal immigration agents into sites that are meant to be protected by sanctuary laws.
The memo prepared by the Adams administration was first reported by The New York Times and was circulated on January 13 ahead of Trump’s return to the White House to migrant shelter operators in New York City. the directive gave workers a broad exception to allow federal immigration enforcement officers to enter shelters without a warrant, undercutting both the City’s longstanding “sanctuary laws” and previous guidance that the administration issued in early January.
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This memo also overrides an email by the Department of Social Services that oversees shelters for homeless New Yorkers, including migrant shelters. That office distributed a Powerpoint presentation on January 2 to City agencies describing how City employees and contractors should comply with New York City’s sanctuary laws. The presentation told workers to call DSS’s legal counsel for guidance when non-local law enforcement agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, try to gain access to non-public areas of City properties, and were given examples of scenarios in which they should allow immigration agents to enter the premises, including when the officer “presents a judicial warrant,” or in “exigent circumstances.”
In the email, DSS Commissioner Molly Park reiterated to nonprofit shelter operators that “non-local law enforcement officials, including federal officers and agents, may not enter DHS or HRA facilities, including those operated by a DHS or HRA provider/vendor, without a warrant signed by a judge, except in exigent circumstances.
In response to the memo, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said, “City employees should not be put in harm’s way — and whatever its intent, this directive will encourage ICE to be even more violent and intimidating toward city workers and immigrant communities alike,” he said in a statement. “It will force city workers to choose between their morals and their mayor’s orders.”
Immigrant advocate groups and the City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and her colleagues have responded saying the directive is “highly irresponsible, confusing, and dangerous”.
