Eric Adams says Trump admin could help change NYC’s sanctuary city laws

Adams has been an increasingly outspoken critic of sanctuary city laws and has become more aligned with incoming Border Czar Tom Homan and President-elect Donald Trump and their mission to begin deportations once President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Adams has said presidential executive action might be required to change sanctuary city laws to allow for more deportations to take place in New York City during an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Wednesday. The mayor said Homan could play a role in that after they spoke on December 12.

"We both agreed on: violent individuals should not remain in our country,” Adams said. “We have laws here in the city on how that could be handled. My legal team is going to sit down with his legal team to make the determination if an executive order can change” the sanctuary city limitations.

Adams noted that Homan specifically talked about ICE getting access to Rikers Island, a city prison where detainees awaiting trial are incarcerated. New York City law does not allow ICE agents to enter such facilities.

“The law that was passed under the previous administration said that no ICE officer can be in any governmental building,” Adams said. “There are exceptions to that. We are looking at those exceptions.”

Homan has threatened to arrest mayors who try to stop Trump’s deportation program. "If they step over that line," Homan previously said. "They can sit back and watch us, which again I find incredible you don’t want to take public safety threats out of your community to help us, but there are laws on the books that we will — we will prosecute."

Adams also expressed dismay that he received no support from the Biden administration when he reached out for help during the surge of illegal immigrants coming to New York City. “We reached out to the White House, 10 trips to Washington, DC, asking them for help in securing the border and stopping this flow. I went down to El Paso and also went down to the Darien Gap and I saw the flow and the threat that we were receiving. We didn't get the support.”