NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams said at his weekly media availability on Tuesday that while he hopes the incoming federal administration can “fix immigration,” he is not for the mass deportations that President-elect Donald Trump has promised throughout his campaign, and affirmed New York City’s status as a sanctuary city.
Adams has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the national migrant crisis that has overwhelmed NYC since 2022, with over 220,000 asylum seekers coming to the city.
“The voters communicated loudly and clearly. We have a broken immigration system. It needs to be fixed,” Adams said. “That’s the only conversation I want. It’s broken, it needs to be fixed. And New York City was devastated by that broken system.”
The mayor has long advocated for the federal government to pick up the cost of the influx of migrants to NYC and other sanctuary cities, noting Tuesday that “cities should not be dealing with a national problem.”
He also believes that a stronger border, required background checks and an expedited employment process for migrants would aid the situation.
“Think about how ridiculous this is, paroling people into the country, then telling them, 'You cannot work from anywhere from six months to two years,”' Adams said. “And so, those who are here, figure out what we're going to do about employment, allowing people to have a pathway to pursue the American dream, secure our borders, have a decompression strategy, allow employment, deal with those who are repeated criminal offenders in our country.”
Adams said that whoever is in the White House does not matter, and his objectives surrounding immigration remain the same to lessen the load on NYC.
“I’m willing to sit down with this administration like I tried to sit down with the previous administrations in my 10 trips to Washington and say, ‘We have a problem that’s overrunning cities,’” he said. “I’m hoping this administration would hear what I’m saying and listen to some of the ideas that I have been pushing for over a year now, close to two years now.”
The mayor did push back on some of the more extreme immigration measures that have been pushed by Trump and his allies like border czar appointee Tom Homan, who has pledged to conduct workplace raids and carry out mass deportations.
After being pushed to more directly state his stance, Adams said he wanted to be very clear: “I’m not a supporter of mass deportation.”
“I’m going to coordinate with the administration to make sure that we continue the spirit of what our laws are here. This is a sanctuary city. Those laws are in place,” the mayor said.
Among those laws are one stating that city resources, including law enforcement, cannot cooperate with ICE or refer criminals to ICE agents. Adams affirmed that the city will continue to abide by those rules, but noted that he thinks they should be modified.
Despite his desire for an updated immigration process, disparaging the current system as a “failure” and “embarrassment,” Adams said that NYC has and will remain consistent in “treating people with the dignity that they deserve in the city.”
“I want people to continue to go to school. I want people to continue to use our hospital systems. I want people to continue to know that if they’re a victim of a crime, they should report those criminal actions against them,” he said. “I don’t want to go to the days where people are going to hide in the shadows.”
The mayor said that as Trump continues to announce appointments and "staff up," the city’s Intergovernmental Affairs person, Tiffany Raspberry, will reach out to the federal government to organize official sit downs with the new administration.