The response to the mayor’s cope with the Trump administration to re-open ICE immigration operations on Rikers Island has sparked sharp division, with indignant opposition amongst advocates and help in regulation enforcement circles.
Coincidentally, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace in a trailer on Rikers Island was shut down on one other Valentine’s Day 10 years in the past in the course of the de Blasio administration, in keeping with Yasmine Farhang of the Immigration Protection Challenge.
“ICE had for years held court at Rikers, funneling thousands of New Yorkers into mass detention and deportation, tearing apart families and violating human rights,” Farhang stated. “We (now) have a mayor attempting to flout our laws by partnering up with this cruel federal administration.”
That aspect seems to be new. Previously, former correction officers stated, the principle focus was notifying the feds when somebody with an immigration detainer was about to be launched, slightly than conducting joint investigations.
Mayor Eric Adams. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
“If one of our inmates had an ICE warrant, we would not let them go. We would hold them until they were picked up,” stated retired assistant deputy warden Joseph Russo, a 27-year veteran. “The mayor’s change on this seems to be political, but I’m happy that he’s now motivated to do it.”
Sidney Schwartzbaum, a former president of the Assistant Deputy Wardens/Deputy Wardens Affiliation, stated correction officers who launched somebody with an immigration detainer had been usually confronted 30-day suspensions.
Adams is dealing with intense criticism that the chief order is successfully a quid professional quo that compromises his independence after Trump’s Justice Division stated it will transfer to dismiss his legal indictment on bribery costs.
Gov. Hochul known as the allegations “extremely serious” and the appearing U.S. Lawyer in Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, and a number of other prosecutors resigned in protest over the DOJ’s demand for a dismissal.
On Friday afternoon, Adams put out an announcement saying he didn’t “trade my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never.”
However Redmond Haskins, a spokesman for the Authorized Support Society, stated in an announcement the Rikers plan is an “egregious violation of New York’s commitment as a sanctuary city.”
Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information
Anti-Eric Adams protestors rally outdoors Metropolis Corridor on Friday. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
“We are immensely concerned by Mayor Adams’ seeming embrace of the new administration’s draconian immigration policies—policies that City Hall should be rejecting in the strongest possible terms,” he stated.
Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group, stated that “Sending legally innocent people there to be picked off by ICE is yet another reason Rikers needs to close as quickly as possible.”
Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information
Anti-Eric Adams protestors rally outdoors Metropolis Corridor on Friday. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Affiliation, stated the order is barely a return to an association with ICE that existed from 2003 to 2015.
“Come into the country legally. If you’ve been in our system, if you’ve committed a heinous crime, then let ICE do their job and get them out of our system and out of our country,” Boscio stated, famous the union has not been totally briefed on your complete scope of the plan.
To some extent, the borders of the general plan appear to be considerably elastic.
On Friday, Mayor Adams appeared on Fox and Pals with Homan and urged he needed town to cooperate with ICE “even on civil enforcement,” although hours later his press crew sought to make clear the mayor’s place on that. “I am not opening the door to civil immigration enforcement with the federal government,” he stated, in an announcement.
The NYPD rapidly issued an announcement saying the division “does not engage in civil immigration enforcement, period.”
“The NYPD does engage in criminal enforcement matters, as it always has, regardless of a person’s immigration status, including work on federal criminal task forces,” the assertion stated.
Thomas Tracy and Chris Sommerfeldt contributed to this story.
Initially Revealed: February 14, 2025 at 6:04 PM EST
