The executive order seems to get around New York City’s sanctuary laws designed to prevent cooperation with the enforcement of federal immigration law.
The executive order seems to get around New York City’s sanctuary laws designed to prevent cooperation with the enforcement of federal immigration law.
The executive order seems to get around New York City’s sanctuary laws designed to prevent cooperation with the enforcement of federal immigration law.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City announced on Thursday that he would issue an executive order to allow federal immigration authorities into the Rikers Island jail complex, a significant shift in the city’s sanctuary policies.
The mayor said that he would move to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the jail to assist in criminal investigations, “in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs.”
The move followed a meeting earlier Thursday between Mr. Adams, a Democrat, and President Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, in Lower Manhattan. The meeting was seen as an early test of the mayor’s relationship with the Trump administration, and of the degree to which Mr. Adams might owe some fealty after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against the mayor.
Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general who requested the dismissal, said on Monday that dropping the charges was necessary to free Mr. Adams to cooperate with the president’s immigration crackdown.
ICE used to have offices on Rikers Island, allowing the city to easily transfer undocumented immigrants jailed there to ICE custody, until the city passed sanctuary laws in 2014 banning ICE from the jail complex.
Mr. Adams had been seeking a way to allow ICE agents into Rikers without violating the city’s sanctuary laws, and he appears to have found a loophole. A provision in one of the 2014 laws permits him to issue an executive order to allow access to federal immigration authorities “for purposes unrelated to the enforcement of civil immigration laws.”