Mayor Eric Adams conceded Saturday that the Big Apple’s hands are tied and won’t be able to assist federal immigration officials in President-elect Donald Trump’s large-scale deportation plan because of New York’s existing sanctuary city status.
“The law is the law,” fumed Adams, when asked by The Post whether the NYPD and his administration will cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its multi-day ground operations expected to begin Tuesday in cities like NYC and Chicago serving as safe havens for migrants.
“I answered that over and over again. I’m not going to keep doing the same question over and over again about the cooperation of city agencies,” he added.
Adams refused to clarify what “law” he was referring to, but his office said he was talking about sanctuary city laws he inherited that prohibit the NYPD, Department of Corrections and Department of Probation from cooperating with ICE unless cases involve suspected terrorists or other serious public safety risks.
Adams has called for the rules to be loosened so migrants “suspected” of “serious” crimes could also be turned over to ICE — as they once were under sanctuary city policies implemented as early as 1989 under ex-mayors Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg.
Regulations added in 2014 and 2018 during Bill de Blasio’s time as mayor made it far more difficult for the city to assist ICE.
