Rally held at City Hall against ICE office returning to Rikers Island
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City Council will vote on a resolution Thursday to allow Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to sue the mayor for sanctuary law violations.
The Council will vote on the pre-considered resolution after First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro signed an executive order that allows ICE agents to return to Rikers Island, which many critics say flouts the city's sanctuary status.
Speaker Adams took part in a rally at City Hall against the move.
She was joined by other council members, immigration advocates, and groups that have been pushing to close Rikers Island.
Adrienne Adams, who is also running for mayor, called the executive order "deeply concerning" and says the City Council is closely reviewing it.
There are "clear guidelines that prohibit the use of office space on Rikers Island for civil immigration enforcement," Adrienne Adams said.
An executive order by Mayor Adams 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.
"The law in the city is that we can not cooperate with ICE for civil enforcement. We can for criminal. That is what we're doing. That is in conformity to the law," Mayor Eric Adams said.
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."
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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