New York Mayor Signals He’s Willing to Change Sanctuary City Laws
NEW YORK CITY—New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he wants to change sanctuary city laws that prevent city authorities from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, but he doesn't support mass deportation.
"The city rules are clear," Adams stated in a press conference on Nov. 12. "No city resources can be used to cooperate or collaborate with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].
"It was changed in the previous administration, and we have to abide by those rules," he said.
"I think that should be modified, I think that should be changed."
Sanctuary laws prevent police and city employees from cooperating with ICE requests in most cases, protecting illegal immigrants from deportation.
During the press conference, the mayor was flooded with questions regarding any changes in the handling of illegal immigrants in the city.
President-elect Donald Trump this week announced Tom Homan as his border czar. Homan, a former acting director of ICE, is known for his tough border policies and advocacy of deportation, particularly for illegal immigrant criminals and those who have been issued a deportation order by a federal judge.
"I am not a supporter of mass deportation," Adams said. "I am a supporter of making sure our borders are secure; whoever is paroled into this country has a path to employment, so they can provide for themselves, [and] the national government fixing our immigration, so we don't have thousands of people sitting inside a HERC [Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center], not being able to work.
"This is inhumane."
Adams said that he wants to help immigrants in the city to work, which he recognized is an "extremely bureaucratic" process. The current law requires illegal immigrant asylum seekers to wait six months before applying for a work permit.
The mayor never explicitly confirmed whether mass deportations would take place in New York City, but said, "We're going to do everything possible to make sure that people are treated with dignity and in a humane way."
Asked about the near future, Adams responded that there is no immediate plan and that his team is coming up with strategies for every situation.
The city has been struggling to handle the infusion of 220,000 illegal immigrants. It has cost the city billions while receiving negligible aid from the federal government, Adams said.
"We really are not aware of what that failed policy has done to this city, those billions of dollars that we had to spend on a national problem. The long-term impact of that?
"Those were billions of dollars that we did not spend on much-needed services."
