Mayor Adams Urges Changes in New York City’s Sanctuary City Laws

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, recently made a statement to spark changes to the city’s sanctuary laws.

This change would mark a significant shift from the decades-old policy.

Mayor Eric Adams (Dem-NYC) wants to modify New York City’s sanctuary city policy for violent crimes just in time for the election pic.twitter.com/sqlkxmcL6q

— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) February 27, 2024

The mayor is begging lawmakers to allow asylum-seeking criminals to be deported.

Eric Adams demands New York walk back ‘sanctuary city’ status so criminals can be deportedhttps://t.co/TV1c4gdBoh

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) February 28, 2024

Mayor Adams is seeking more cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local police.

CBS News adds more on Adams’s comments:

In a series of recent statements, Adams expressed he is willing to permit law enforcement to work more openly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport migrants who are suspected of serious crimes.

“If you are repeatedly committing crimes in our city, like the individual did a serious crime and then got out and went and assaulted and did a robbery, you don’t have the right to be in our city and tarnish the overwhelming number who are here following the rules,” Adams said.

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The mayor has not explicitly stated which aspects of the law he wants to see changed.

The policies of a sanctuary city originated with Mayor Ed Koch in office in the late 1980’s, and has been modified over five mayoral administrations.

CNN Politics expands on sanctuary city policy in New York:

The definition of sanctuary city or state can vary somewhat across jurisdictions. The term is broadly applied to jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. How such policies are enforced can vary.

When Koch took up the policy in 1989 – the first time the city had done so – he enacted an executive order barring agencies and officials from sharing information about immigrants unless it involved a criminal matter or the individual authorized it.

Several years later in 2014, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council added teeth to the order’s language, putting a law on the books that removed ICE from Department of Correction facilities and barred the NYPD or DOC from honoring detainer requests from ICE. Detainer requests are issued by ICE as an official ask to hold an individual for possible deportation.

The city’s current law does include some exceptions: People with recent convictions for specific violent crimes and people on the federal terrorist watchlist are exempt from the rule. If ICE obtains a judicial warrant for an individual, it is also allowed under the current set up.

Many people on X have voiced their opinions of Mayor Adams newfound opinions of a sanctuary city:

Keep crying Eric Adams. Isn’t this what you wanted?

You were all for flooding our country with illegal immigrants. You were all for sanctuary cities. You were all for Texas and other southern states getting wrecked.

Until it began to affect you. Now you’re putting on clown… pic.twitter.com/tFYQGcmhKf

— 𝕎𝕒𝕣 ℍ𝕒𝕞𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 © (@_WarHamster) February 28, 2024

Wow.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams is calling for NYC’s sanctuary city law to be changed so that criminal illegal aliens can be deported.

Democrats don’t even want to live under their policies. pic.twitter.com/izwPI95NrY

— Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 27, 2024

ABC News adds more on the New York City Council:

The New York City Council has exhibited no interest in modifying the laws, which were strengthened in 2014 during the de Blasio administration, but some Republicans welcomed the mayor’s remarks.

“It’s a welcome change,” City Councilman Joe Borelli said.

A City Council spokesperson reiterated that the council has no plans to revisit the sanctuary city laws when contacted for comment by ABC News.

The Legal Aid Society expressed alarm.

“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,” the group said in a statement.

Unsurprisingly, once a Democratic city begins to struggle with immigration, they immediately begin to change their tunes on their sanctuary laws.