Adams met with the Trump border czar just two days after the DOJ told prosecutors to drop the corruption case against the mayor. At issue: Would NYC relax its sanctuary laws and allow ICE agents and other federal authorities access to buildings like courthouses, shelters and schools? In an interview with NBC New York, the mayor said he would offer to help turn over criminals, but not asylum seekers who haven’t done anything wrong. Andrew Siff reports.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in New York Thursday morning, as the Republican administration pushes for more help detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants accused of crimes.
In an interview with NBC New York, Adams called it "an extremely good meeting" that focused on communication.
"It was clear that the border czar had a lot of angst, a lot of concerns, a lot of just uncertainty what was happening here in the city. We were able to sit down and give clarity on what is under my authority, and what is under the authority of the City Council and other laws that I’m playing with," said Adams. "And we walked out with a clear understanding of how we can work together."
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Some of the talks centered on having ICE officers back on Rikers Island and making sure any orders did not violate laws.
"We had to understand all the legal parameters to put ICE back on Rikers Island, which we think is a smart thing to do. Today we shared with them, ICE will be back on Rikers Island to deal with the criminal aspect of investigation," Adams told NBC New York. "They’re also going to be embedded in our gang and criminal task force on Rikers Island that the police department and Department of Corrections that are now a part of."
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Opponents dismissed the move as a “needless concession” and “legally dubious.”
“ICE’s presence on Rikers serves no legitimate purpose, and opens the door to unlawful collusion between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials in violation of our city’s well-established sanctuary protections,” Zach Ahmad, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said.
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Homan argued that having an ICE presence at local jails is crucial to removing violent criminals who have entered the country illegally.
Adams has previously said he favors loosening “sanctuary” policies, but he doesn't have the broad power to do so as mayor. Still, the Democrat is under unique pressure to cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
It marks the first big test for Adams' relationship with Trump's team after the U.S. Justice Department on Monday directed federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop corruption charges against the mayor, with a top official saying the administration wanted Adams free to aid the Republican president's immigration agenda.
As of Thursday, the criminal charges remained in place. If the case is ultimately dropped, a senior Justice Department official said in a memo that a review would be done after the mayoral election in November to assess whether it should be reinstated.
Immigration advocates say they’re concerned Adams might feel pushed to disregard or rescind some of the city's current rules around cooperation with immigration enforcement, which come from a patchwork of state and city laws and mayoral executive orders.
The mayor pushed back against any rumors or notion he was under the thumb of the Trump administration.
"There’s never been a time in the history of my professional life that I would allow anything to get in the way of fighting for New Yorkers. So those who say that opinion, they don’t have any facts to base it on," he said.
Adams, who faces a Democratic primary in June, has said his priority is to ensure that people who commit serious crimes are removed from the city. The law, however, restricts city officials from doing some things that U.S. immigration enforcement officials want most, like having city jails hold people wanted for civil immigration law violations past when they would ordinarily be released from custody.
NYC has also passed measures that curtail ICE’s access to public schools and other city properties. Adams said Homan did not ask him during their meeting to open schools, shelters or court houses to ICE officers.
"He has not articulated to me he wants to go into our schools, there’s no desire to round up our children, like so many people have been, I think, irresponsible saying," said Adams. "My message to him and what I got from him: Eric, there are dangerous people on our streets in this country in general, but specifically here in new York city, we want to work with you to get them off your streets."
Republican members of New York’s City Council who met separately with Homan prior to the meeting with the mayor said Homan hoped Adams will support efforts to roll back the city’s sanctuary protections.
“He’s expecting cooperation,” said Councilmember Bob Holden, who called the reopening of the ICE office on Rikers Island "a significant first step."
Some of Adams' opponents in the upcoming Democratic primary were not nearly as keen on Homan's visit.
"I hope the mayor is not willing to sacrifice vulnerable New Yorkers for his own skin," said State Sen. Zellnor Myrie.
"Tom Homan came here to send marching orders: Donald Trump wants to collect on a debt," said Scott Stringer.
Adams has already ordered city officials to lawfully cooperate with Trump’s agenda around immigration and other issues, though the administration’s instructions have sparked worry and confusion among some city workers and contractors.
"Immigration is a federal enforcement, not a city enforcement. That is why we told our city employees: Do not do anything that is going to impede them executing their jobs. I am not going to allow my city employees to be exposed to obstruction on a federal level, which is a five-year prison sentence," he said.
The mayor said going after noncriminal immigrants who entered the country illegally was not the aim.
"We know this is a city of immigrants...the goal is how do we keep them out of harm’s way. Cooperating to go after those who are dangerous is how we do it," said Adams.
“As I have always said, immigrants have been crucial in building our city and will continue to be key to our future success, but we must fix our long-broken immigration system,” Adams said in a statement. “That is why I have been clear that I want to work with the new federal administration, not war with them, to find common ground and make better the lives of New Yorkers.”
Besides discussing immigration, Adams had said before the meeting he intended to bring up the move by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Wednesday to claw back more than $80 million it had previously paid the city to help defray the cost of sheltering homeless migrants. Adams said city officials had contacted the White House about getting back the money, are seeking an emergency meeting with FEMA and exploring legal options.
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the administration can continue efforts to withhold the FEMA money from the city, saying that money was not subject to an order, still in effect, aimed at preventing an administration pause on federal funding.
The Adams administration has leased several hotels and vacant buildings and repurposed them as migrant shelters as the city has tried to house some 230,000 people that have arrived from the U.S. southern border in recent years.
Gone is a $59 million grant that the administration challenged earlier in the week and another award for $21.5 million, City Comptroller Brad Lander said. The money was discovered to be missing overnight, and Lander said no one in his office had been aware that the federal government had access to the city's bank account. Lander questioned whether the move was legal, saying he had never seen a case where someone was "authorized to come into your bank accounts and take it back because of shifting political winds.”
The grants were applied for and awarded during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden but were not disbursed until last week, the city said.
Soon after, Trump adviser Elon Musk flagged $59 million in payments, writing on X that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency had discovered the money was used to house migrants in “luxury hotels.” Musk gave no evidence to support his claim.
Most of the former hotels leased by the city are occupied by families with children, and none would be considered “luxury” by most traveler standards. The city also began leasing the building that once housed the Roosevelt Hotel as an intake center for migrants seeking city services in 2023, after it closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That hotel has a grand past, though in the years before its closure it was an affordable option for travelers to the city.
Under city law, New York must offer shelter to anyone who needs it, and at the time the regular homeless shelter system was overwhelmed with new arrivals. The hotel now serves as both a place where migrants must go to apply for services and as a temporary shelter for hundreds of families who can stay for only 60 days.
FEMA’s acting administrator said in court documents filed Tuesday that the money was being clawed back over concerns about “illegal activities” at a hotel. The Shelter and Services Program, with money coming from Congress and administered by FEMA, has become a flashpoint for criticism by Republicans, who incorrectly claim it’s taking funds from people hit by hurricanes or floods.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested at a briefing Wednesday that the administration felt paying for hotels for migrants in the city was not a worthy expense while FEMA deals with costly disasters elsewhere. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that she “has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
The Trump administration on Wednesday also filed a lawsuit against New York’s governor and attorney general over the state’s so-called Green Light law, versions of which have been enacted in a number of states and generally allow people who might not be in the U.S. legally to get driver’s licenses.
Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in New York and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed reporting.
