The Metropolis Council handed a decision that may allow Speaker Adrienne Adams to sue Mayor Eric Adams’ administration over violations of the town’s sanctuary legal guidelines that might come up from his determination to permit federal immigration authorities again on Rikers Island. Thursday, April 10, 2025.
Photograph Credit score: Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit.
The Metropolis Council gave Speaker Adrienne Adams the ability Thursday to sue Mayor Adams’ administration over violations of the town’s sanctuary legal guidelines following Metropolis Corridor issuing an govt order permitting federal immigration brokers again on Rikers Island.
The 51-member council accredited a decision by way of a voice vote on April 10 authorizing the speaker to sue Metropolis Corridor on the physique’s behalf if the govt order is discovered to violate metropolis sanctuary legal guidelines, which bar the town from cooperating with federal immigration authorities on civil enforcement.
Hizzoner introduced his intention to signal the directive after assembly with Turmp’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan in February and simply days after the DOJ moved to dismiss his costs.
“This mayor has been compromised,” mentioned the speaker, who occurs to even be a mayoral candidate. “His administration’s latest executive order inviting ICE onto Rikers Island is the latest example…Let’s be clear, this is about the mayor fulfilling his end of the bargain [with] Trump, selling out New York in exchange for the dismissal of his federal corruption case.”
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro on Thursday mentioned the directive doesn’t violate the 2014 legislation however as a substitute is “narrowly tailored” to solely permit collaboration between the town and ICE on felony investigations to focus on “transnational gang” members who had been designated as terrorists by the Trump administration. Due to this fact, he mentioned, a possible Metropolis Council lawsuit could be “meritless.”Photograph by Ethan Stark-Miller
But when requested if the council had a lawsuit able to go, the speaker mentioned her workplace is “not looking at a lawsuit per se right now.” She mentioned they’re inspecting the chief order and its signing by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro after Mayor Adams recused himself from the method to find out the legality of each.
“Our intention is to legally follow through with our resolution and go through this executive order to determine its legality,” the speaker mentioned.
In its decision, the council argues that the chief order violates metropolis Conflicts of Curiosity legislation due to Mayor Adams’ alleged quid professional quo. They additional cost that Adams didn’t really take away himself from the method even when Mastro signed the order.
“Conflict-of-interest laws provide that Executive Order 50 is the poisonous fruit of Mayor Adams’ corrupt deal and thus invalid,” the decision reads.
The chief order breaks with a decade-long precedent that ICE has not operated in any capability on Rikers Island for the reason that passage of a 2014 legislation that barred it from holding workplace house there for civil enforcement issues. It requires the town to enter right into a “memorandum of understanding” with the Trump administration that may stipulate that each the town and federal authorities should restrict their collaboration to felony investigations.
Mastro on Thursday mentioned the directive doesn’t violate the 2014 legislation however as a substitute is “narrowly tailored” to solely permit collaboration between the town and ICE on felony investigations to focus on “transnational gang” members who had been designated as terrorists by the Trump administration. Due to this fact, he mentioned, a possible Metropolis Council lawsuit could be “meritless.”
“It is only for criminal enforcement and expressly excludes civil matters, so that is not permitted under the executive order, and that is not going to happen under the executive order,” Mastro mentioned. “I think that it disrespects some pretty great public servants…to even ask the question when it’s not going to happen and it’s not permitted by the executive order.”
Mastro mentioned there could be unspecified penalties for Division of Correction employees and federal immigration authorities who violate the town’s sanctuary legal guidelines, however that the scenario wouldn’t come up within the first place.
Nevertheless, council leaders argue that the order opens the floodgates to federal immigration authorities pursuing civil enforcement on Rikers Island in violation of metropolis legislation. They pointed to a latest occasion the place the Trump administration mistakenly deported a Maryland development employee named Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to a infamous jail in El Salvador after accusing him of being a gang member — a declare his attorneys dispute.
“We don’t trust the Trump administration, and this is where this is coming from,” Speaker Adams mentioned. “So how are we ever supposed to trust the real effect and what will happen as a result of ICE being brought onto Rikers?”
