The City Council speaker didn’t mince words Wednesday in her response to Donald Trump’s election win and transition.
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she was disappointed with the Republican’s victory, his picks for White house staff, including Steve Bannon, and his possible commitment to undermine the rights of minority, Muslim and LGBT New Yorkers. Mark-Viverito pledged to continue to fight for their rights and reiterated that New York will be a sanctuary city.
“We will not allow Donald Trump’s White House to tell us differently. We will not allow Steve Bannon to tell us differently,” she said at a news conference at City Hall.
The speaker said the council has legislative options against Trump’s policies against undocumented immigrants and wouldn’t rule out a possibility of deleting the data collected from the IDNYC card program. The municipal id, which is offered to any New Yorker regardless of their immigration status, has been issued to more than 860,000 people since its launch in 2015.
“We will exert every tool available in defense of this city and its ideals,” Mark-Viverito said.
