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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 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.

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:

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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:

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.



 

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