America’s biggest ‘sanctuary city’ opens the doors to Trump’s border czar

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” have the “same desire” when it comes to the president-elect’s plans for mass deportations in the largest city in America, Adams said Thursday.

Tom Homan met with the Democratic mayor days after telling Democratic officials to “get the hell out of the way” of Trump’s ambitions for what the president-elect is calling the “the largest mass deportation operation in American history.”

“We have the same desire to go after those who have committed repeated violent acts among innocent New Yorkers and among migrants and asylum seekers,” Adams told reporters after his meeting with Homan.

“That’s what I heard from him,” he said. “I was pleased to hear that because we share the same desire,” he emphasized again.

But his 10-minute remarks did not answer how, exactly, his administration plans to collaborate with federal law enforcement and immigration authorities, and he assailed the media for “preconceived notions” and “distorted views” about his own approach to immigration enforcement.

“I’ll answer a few questions, but then I’m leaving,” said Adams, who is facing federal criminal charges stemming from allegations of corruption in his campaign. “It’s not gonna matter what I respond to anyway. You have your preconceived thoughts already.”

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Trump’s pledge to arrest, detain and deport people living in the country without legal permission as part of his “day one” agenda would deploy federal, state and local law enforcement into immigrant communities across the nation.

Trump’s allies expect to expand his pledge to target potentially millions of people beyond the scope of undocumented immigrants who are accused of committing crimes.

Trump and Homan have said that US citizen children of non-citizen parents are expected to be deported along with their families.

More than 200,000 people seeking asylum have taken shelter in New York after Republican-led states in 2022 began shipping newly arrived immigrants to Democratic-led cities to protest President Joe Biden’s administration.

Those arrivals add to a population that includes roughly 400,000 undocumented New Yorkers.

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After initially welcoming asylum seekers into a network of city-run shelters, Adams warned that the resources have spread the city thin, with spending expected to reach $12 billion into 2025.

The office of New York Comptroller Brad Lander says Trump’s mass deportation plans would “tear families apart, hollow out communities throughout the city, devastate our economy, and violate New York City’s values as an immigrant city.”

New York is often considered a so-called “sanctuary” city, among dozens of cities across the country that have some laws and policies in place intended to protect immigrant populations from unjust arrests, detentions or deportations.

Several New York City administrations have supported policies that limit how local police interact with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with exceptions for people suspected of terrorism or convicted of violent crimes.

“New Yorkers know that under Homan ICE will be used to divide us, cruelly targeting and demonizing immigrants, while making every New Yorker even more unsafe,” said New York Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh.

“Targeting immigrants for arrests and deportation is destructive and diverts resources away from initiatives that actually promote safety and well-being,” she added. “Mayor Adams has an obligation to every New York family to maintain our public safety by refusing to participate in ICE’s cruel, politicized immigration agenda.”

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Trump, meanwhile, has accused Democratic officials of enabling “migrant crime” and wants to do away with “sanctuary” policies altogether.

“No more sanctuary cities,” Trump declared at a campaign event in North Carolina in September. “As soon as I take office, we will immediately surge federal law enforcement to every city that is failing, which is a lot of them, to turn over criminal aliens.”

A statement from Adams’s office said the administration is “exploring lawful processes to remove from New York City individuals who have been convicted of a major felony and lack legal status to remain in the United States.”

Adams is also proposing a national “resettlement” strategy to send people seeking asylum to cities experiencing workforce shortages, and to expand work authorization processes and temporary protected status designations for newly arrived immigrants from certain countries.

“We’re going to protect the rights of immigrants in this city who are hard working, giving back to the city in a real way,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“We’re not going to be a safe haven for those who have commited repeated violent crimes against innocent migrants, immigrants and longstanding New Yorkers,” he added. “That was my conversation today with the border czar: To figure out how we go after those individuals who are repeatedly committing crimes in our city.”

He said that “law-abiding” immigrants will be able to “continue to utilize the services that are open to the city, the services they have a right to utilize,” including education and healthcare.

“But we will not be a safe haven for those who commit violent acts,” he added.