New York Mayor Eric Adams is calling for cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a wave of crimes reportedly committed by illegal immigrants caught national attention.
New York City has marketed itself as a sanctuary city that did not cooperate with federal immigration agencies except in the event of a risk to public safety. Now, Mayor Adams is calling for the deportation of migrants in the city who violate the law.
“I want to go back to the standards of the previous mayors who I believe subscribe to my belief that people who are suspected of committing serious crimes in the city should be held accountable,” the mayor said during a press conference on Feb. 27. “We've had a series of migrants and asylum seekers who were doing chains of robberies…You know, I think that New Yorkers have a right to be safe. People who are like the many that are here that want to participate in the American experience should not be tarnished by those small numbers that are committing these violent acts.”
“I think that we should make sure that the laws at the top of our laws should be about public safety. New Yorkers have the right to be safe,” Adams continued. “And if you were to talk to the average New Yorker, I believe they would line up on the same side with me that we should not be allowing people who are repeatedly committing crimes to remain here and we cannot collaborate with ICE in the process.”
In August, approximately 10,000 migrants were arriving in New York City every month. Just over 66,100 migrants had arrived in the city during the first six months of 2023 while Adams estimated more than 90,000 had arrived since the spring of 2022. The arrivals overburdened the city’s shelter system and the crisis is projected to cost the city over $4 billion dollars, according to The New York Post.
On Feb. 26, Adams called for the modification of New York City’s Sanctuary City law.
“If you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you over to ICE and have you deported,” he said during a community conversation. “It is a right to live in this city and you should be not committing crimes in our city in doing so. Right now, we don't have the authority to do so.”
Kenneth Genalo, the director of the ICE's New York City field office, criticized the city’s Sanctuary City law during a press conference on Feb. 6. A video of illegal immigrants beating a member of the New York Police Department went viral and prompted Genalo to point out that the progressive policy had prevented offenders from being removed from the county.
"We want to help. The problem is, due to city policies and state law, cooperation is no longer afforded between NYPD and ICE," Genalo said, per Fox News. "There’s hundreds of people a week that are being arrested throughout the city and we can’t determine which are the most violent."
