Democrat Mayor Eric Adams has announced that he is backing a conservative-led push to roll back New York City’s so-called “sanctuary” laws.
NYC’s disastrous “sanctuary city” policies were passed during “progressive” Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
Since Adams entered the mayor’s office, NYC has been engulfed by the national border crisis as illegal aliens flood the “sanctuary city.”
Adams has now announced that he supports a bill pushed by the Common Sense Caucus that would repeal portions of the city Administrative Code precluding city agencies’ cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Common Sense Caucus is a bipartisan group of the City Council’s most conservative members, including Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) and Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island/South Brooklyn).
“I think the previous administration made a big mistake,” Adams said of de Blasio’s radical pro-illegal immigration agenda.
“I think we need to correct that aspect of it.
“New Yorkers have a right to be safe in their city.
“The same way anyone breaks the law or does something violent to New Yorkers, I’m going to voice my concern about that.”
The mayor’s negative feelings about the prior administration have been no secret, however.
On Tuesday, Adams praised earlier mayors for their sanctuary city policies dating back to Mayor Ed Koch.
Kock first issued an executive order in 1989 limiting local cooperation with the federal government on matters of immigration.
ICE didn’t exist until 2003 with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Subsequent mayors, including Mayor David Dinkins and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, issued similar executive orders.
The general idea behind the policies is that immigrants will be more likely to cooperate with local law enforcement if they know they won’t be on the radar of immigration officials.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration passed the first local law on the issue explicitly limiting the Department of Correction’s cooperation with ICE.
The laws passed during de Blasio’s tenure, which took sanctuary city policies further, are the ones targeted by the Common Sense Caucus.
In 2014, new laws removed an ICE office from Rikers Island and prohibited the Department of Correction, NYPD, and Department of Probation from honoring ICE detainer requests — official requests to detain individuals for possible deportation.
The law had a series of carveouts for when those departments could honor detainer requests — if an individual was convicted of a litany of violent or serious crimes, if they were on federal terror watch lists, or if ICE obtained a judicial warrant.
Republican State Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) led a February press conference with members of the Common Sense Caucus and Kenneth Genalo, ICE director for the New York City field office.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the way that we have to do our intelligence in ICE is the same way that you find out about cases,” Genalo said of the challenges his agency faces.
“It’s through the media,” she noted.
“We’re no longer contacted. We’re no longer called.”
While Adams sought not to paint the city’s migrant population with the broad brush of criminality, Malliotakis on Tuesday pointed to a series of high-profile crimes connected to the community.
Specifically, an incident in which migrants were involved in an altercation with police officers in Times Square, and another in which a migrant is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl.
“It’s putting New Yorkers in danger, and it’s putting other migrants in the shelter in danger too,” she said Tuesday.
The congresswoman said she’d like to see Adams take more proactive steps, like issuing an executive order rolling back sanctuary city policies, and then fighting the lawsuit that would undoubtedly come.
Local members of the Common Sense Caucus, Borelli and Carr, welcomed the support of the city’s executive.
However, given the liberal makeup of the NYC Council, it’s unclear if the bill will make it to Adams’ desk.
“The mayor is right and this has to be repealed,” Borelli said.
“The only beneficiaries of this law are criminals.”
Carr also urged the Charter Review Commission convened by Adams earlier this year to consider putting sanctuary city policies into a ballot proposal in the upcoming November elections.
“As a member of the Common Sense Caucus, I am proud to cosponsor legislation that would repeal de Blasio’s so-called Sanctuary City laws,” he said.
“It is absurd to prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, especially when a person of interest is being released from Riker’s or local custody.
“I am glad that the mayor has recognized this need too, and I believe that he should urge his Charter Revision Commission to place the repeal of this dangerous legislation on the ballot.”
Council Member Robert Holden (D), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said last month:
“We have enough criminals in this city; we don’t need to import more and protect them as well.”
“Repealing the laws that have created a sanctuary city status is common sense,” he declared.
According to the New York Sun, more than 200,000 illegal aliens have arrived in New York City since 2022 due to Democrat President Joe Biden’s open-border policies.
Holden recently told the Daily Caller:
“It’s encouraging to hear the Mayor’s support for our effort to repeal sanctuary city laws.”
“Despite a combative City Council, he can make it happen by advocating for the Charter Revision Commission to include this proposition on this year’s ballot for the people to decide.
“New Yorkers will make the right choice: let’s get it done!”
https://slaynews.com/news/democrat-mayor-eric-adams-calls-rollback-nyc-sanctuary-city-status/
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