Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday declined to say whether his administration would participate in mass deportations promised by Republican President-elect Donald Trump on the heels of his victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, despite pledging to uphold the city’s sanctuary laws.
Hizzoner and senior administration officials, during a Nov. 6 news conference following the Nov. 5. general election, sidestepped reporters’ repeated questions about whether and how they would stop the incoming president from rounding up migrants in the five boroughs and deporting them.
Trump plans to mobilize agencies across the federal government to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and could target sanctuary cities like New York by withholding federal funding, reports indicate.
New York City has sanctuary protections that bar local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities if they arrest undocumented migrants. During Wednesday’s news conference, Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs said that the administration plans to follow the city’s sanctuary laws.
“We want to be clear about [being] as a sanctuary city, we intend to follow the law and we expect that all our city agencies follow our sanctuary laws,” Castro said. “Sanctuary laws make it clear with respect to how we collaborate, or if we collaborate, with [the] federal government. It sets the boundaries, it explains how we use our resources. And I want to make sure that our immigrant communities know that, as the mayor has said, we will continue to be a sanctuary city, and we will continue to protect our immigrant communities.”
After this report went live, mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia pointed a reporter to comments Castro made in Spanish following his answer in English, where he said the administration “will not be following the instructions of the federal government in cases of mass deportations.”
But when a Newsday reporter asked for more specifics on exactly what the city is doing to protect undocumented migrants from deportation, the mayor and his press team interjected, declined to answer, and moved on to the next question.
Later in the press briefing, a Daily News reporter followed up, asking the mayor several times whether his administration would cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation efforts. The mayor again did not address the question and simply said “don’t disrupt our off-topics,” then threatened to kick the reporter out.
Adams has hardly been a fan of the city’s sanctuary laws amid the massive influx of migrants to the Big Apple over the course of his administration. On multiple occasions, he suggested the laws should be partially rolled back so the city can coordinate with federal immigration authorities when it comes to migrants convicted of committing violent crimes.
The mayor repeated that stance on Wednesday but said he would “abide by” the city’s current sanctuary laws.
However, Adams and his top deputies said City Hall will work with the Trump administration on a variety of issues, including immigration. He added that is how his administration has approached President Biden’s White House as well, but they noted that the Democratic president has not been receptive to their pleas for financial and logistical support with the migrant crisis.
“The elections are over, and it’s about governing now,” Adams said. “It’s about not taking this posture that we’re not going to communicate with Washington DC, just the opposite. We’re going to communicate with Washington DC.”
Updated on Nov. 6 at 3:50 p.m.
