Adams administration establishes office for ICE agents inside Rikers Island
NEW YORK (WABC) -- ICE agents are returning to Rikers Island to coordinate detaining inmates from city criminal cases, under a long promised executive order issued by the mayor's office.
An executive order by the Adams administration will allow federal agents into the jail complex to assist in criminal investigations.
It's a move that critics say is a slippery slope to civil rights violations.
The move comes after several meetings between Adams and President Trump's border czar Tom Homan, promising limited cooperation with ICE agents while reinstating access to prisoners in the city's largest jail.
Newly appointed First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro has been authorized to handle the issue.
"To maintain trust among the nearly 8.5 million New Yorkers who our administration serves every day, Mayor Adams has delegated all powers and responsibilities related to any executive order to authorize federal officials to investigate potential criminal immigration violations at Rikers Island to First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro," a mayoral spokesperson said.
Mastro claims the move complies with New York's sanctuary city laws, which prohibit the city from assisting in deportations.
"This is only about advancing criminal investigations and bringing criminal charges against these heinous, violent, transnational criminal gang members and associates," Mastro said.
He says any cooperation will be strictly limited.
"It's what we should have been doing all along, it is not in any way, shape or form inconsistent with local law," Mastro said. "The executive order complies with it completely and it limits the cooperation to criminal enforcement, not civil matters."
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is also running for mayor, called the executive order "deeply concerning" and says the City Council is closely reviewing it.
"We know why there was such a cozy meeting with the border czar," Adams said. "This is the result of that meeting. And this is what we have now. We are looking into the executive order to see what can be done."
But Mastro insists the order will not allow agents to remove migrants awaiting trial. It is intended, he says, to allow agents to develop intelligence -- tips -- about criminal gangs still operating in the streets so investigators can track them down.
"My God, do we want violent, criminal, transnational gangs to be operating with impunity in our city?" Mastro said.
Mastro said this won't change deportation at all.
"This is only about cooperating in criminal investigations that involve people both inside of Rikers and outside who are members of transnational violent criminal gangs who have been designated as terrorist organizations and helping to prosecute them under federal law," Mastro said.
The mayor has said the city will only cooperate with federal detentions stemming from criminal investigations, and not in civil immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration had asked Adams to allow immigration enforcement agents access to city jails, saying it is safer to detain undocumented persons in the jails than on the streets following release.
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