Adams administration officials insisted Thursday that sanctuary city laws are still being followed — telling lawmakers that “nothing has changed” despite Mayor Eric Adams’ floating a potential rollback of the migrant-friendly policies.
“No sanctuary laws and policies have changed,” Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro assured members of the City Council during a hearing.
“In our communities there is going to be a great amount of debate, perhaps even confusion, misinformation and so on,” Castro said. “But we want to make sure that people know that no sanctuary city policies have changed and the direction to city agencies and offices continues to be that we follow our sanctuary city laws and policies.”
Councilmember Alexa Avilés, chair of the Committee on Immigration, accused Adams of sowing the “confusion” about the 40 year old policies.
“What is clear is there is an awful lot of confusion about what to do which has been precipitated by the executive,” Avilés said. “The problem seems to be with the mayor who does not understand.”
Castro assured Avilés his office has not proposed any changes to the city’s sanctuary laws.
Adams has repeatedly suggested the city should change its longstanding sanctuary policies to increase cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The mayor dared progressives to “cancel” him in December when he announced he supported deporting migrants from New York City who have been charged with crimes — a shift from his past stance of waiting for convictions before shipping off immigrant criminals.
Hizzoner appeared with President Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Fox and Friends last month promising he would reopen the ICE office on Rikers Island and allow city officials to collaborate with ICE on civil enforcement.
But under questioning from council members, immigration officials in the mayor’s office said they had never seen any executive order draft that would accomplish the mayor’s goals.
“The mayor seems to be operating in explicit conflict with our local laws by saying ICE is going to be showing up at Rikers Island,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler said.
“We don’t have any information,” Castro replied. “MOIA has not been part of any of these conversations to change these laws.”
Molly Schaeffer, director of the city’s Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, said she has not been consulted on any such executive order either.
A city council spokesperson said after the hearing that a proposal to make changes to the city’s sanctuary laws is under review with the corporation counsel.
The spokesperson noted that changing most of the existing laws would have to go through the City Council.
But a provision in local law would allow the mayor to put an ICE office on Rikers Island through an executive order.
Restler said he found it “deeply disrespectful” that city officials would show up to the hearing without any information on the mayor’s potential executive order.
“The mayor has been sowing confusion and creating immense fear in our communities,” Restler said.
“The mayor by leaning in to this mass deportation agenda of the Trump administration and embracing it and expressing it on TV his desire to bring it to New York City, despite our proud 40 year history of sanctuary city laws, is deeply disturbing,” Restler said.
