Adams admin exploring legal options after NYC Council swats down push to roll back sanctuary city policy
Mayor Eric Adams on Friday said his administration is looking into its legal options after the City Council swatted down his bid to change Big Apple sanctuary policies in order to more easily deport migrants accused of crimes.
“We’re not going back and forth. I stated my position, they stated their position, and so the legal team is now looking at what are the options we have,” Hizzoner said in an interview with Fox 5’s Good Day New York.
“We’re going to stay focused on the many other things we have to do in the city,” he continued.
“I just want New Yorkers to know that it doesn’t matter if it’s a longtime New Yorker or a migrant and asylum seeker, no one should harm our public safety in this city, and I’ve been clear on that from the day of being a police officer.”
Asked by The Post if Adams was considering issuing an executive order, City Hall declined to comment. But the mayor, in another interview Friday morning, told 1010 WINS he would “exercise whatever authority I have to protect the people of the city.”
“I want to be clear that the goal is not to deport someone who breaks the law. I’m talking about violent, repeated offenders,” he said on the “Morning Drive” AM radio show.
The mayor was probed about the issue as he made a series of morning media appearances about the city’s new sanitation rules that went into effect Friday.
It came days after Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said lawmakers were not planning on making any modifications to the current policy — which severely limits communication between local and federal authorities — called Hizzoner’s call for changes “harmful.”
The mayor had suggested the city should better cooperate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to potentially deport those “suspected” of carrying out “serious” crimes, in light of a recent spate of violence involving migrants, some linked to gangs and growing rap sheets.
“Our job is to apprehend them, the prosecutor’s job is to prosecute and I believe the federal government’s job is to deport them after they serve their time here, because if you don’t have them serve their time, they go back out and do the crimes again,” he added on 1010 WINS.
A source told The Post Friday that the City Council was defiant in its position to keep the laws as they are, and noted that members had not been approached by the mayor’s team to discuss any potential changes.
“It is my strong belief that the overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers are here to pursue the next step on the American dream,” he noted when asked about his comment on PIX11.
“We have a small number that are repeatedly violent. They’re committing real violent acts that includes shooting at a police officer,” he added, referring to the 15-year-old migrant from Venezuela accused of opening fire on a cop chasing him following a botched robbery in Times Square.