What you should know
- The comments marked the mayor’s harshest rebuke to date of so-called sanctuary laws adopted by New York over the past decade, which aimed to protect the city’s immigrant population by limiting how local agencies can assist in efforts federal detention and deportation.
- “The mere fact that we can’t share with ICE that this person has committed three robberies, that this person is part of an organized gang, the mere fact that we can’t say that or communicate that, is problematic to me,” he continued.
- Proponents of those laws said they ensure due process is provided to immigrants, who could otherwise face detention and deportation based on mere suspicion of criminal conduct.
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday called for greater cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities, attacking current city policies that limit such communication as detrimental to public safety. .
The comments marked the mayor’s harshest rebuke to date of so-called sanctuary laws adopted by New York over the past decade, which aimed to protect the city’s immigrant population by limiting how local agencies can assist in efforts federal detention and deportation.
Citing his “fundamental disagreement” with those laws, Adams, a Democrat, said the city’s police department should be free to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when a person is suspected of a crime. serious crime, such as robbery or gang activity.
“We should contact ICE, and if ICE makes the decision to deport, then they should do so,” Adams said.
“The mere fact that we can’t share with ICE that this person has committed three robberies, that this person is part of an organized gang, the mere fact that we can’t say that or communicate that, is problematic to me,” he continued.
New York’s sanctuary policies have sparked intense backlash from conservatives in recent weeks following some high-profile incidents involving migrants, including a fight with police and a shooting in Times Square.
The city began limiting cooperation with federal immigration agents in the 1980s as a public safety measure to assure the city’s large foreign-born population that they should not be afraid to interact with local police.
Among supporters of those policies at the time was Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who argued that from a crime-fighting perspective, it was important to make immigrants less afraid of the police.
Those limits on cooperation have since been expanded in subsequent administrations.
While Adams lamented the “drastic changes” to the policy, he did not explicitly say what aspects of the law he would seek to rescind. But his spokeswoman, Charles Lutvak, said the mayor was specifically opposed to a pair of laws implemented in 2014 and 2017 under his predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The first prevents the city from complying with requests from immigration authorities to hold criminal suspects in custody unless they have been convicted of certain violent crimes and a judge has issued an order for their removal. The second law prohibits the use of city resources to assist in immigration enforcement efforts.
Proponents of those laws said they ensure due process is provided to immigrants, who could otherwise face detention and deportation based on mere suspicion of criminal conduct.
Adams cannot adjust the laws without approval from the City Council, whose progressive leaders have said they have no plans to review the protections.
But by embracing calls to repeal the laws, Adams had given credence to the dubious idea that immigrants were fueling a rise in crime, according to Zachary Ahmad, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“Mayor Adams’ shameful threats to end New York’s years-long status as a sanctuary city will only result in cruel attacks, demonization and demoralization of our immigrant neighbors,” he said. “Immigrants are not theater elements that put their lives at risk.”
2024-02-28 04:55:35
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