In a press briefing earlier today, Mayor Eric Adams mostly dodged repeated questions on how his office will navigate Trump’s stated plans for mass deportations. With the former president set to take office again on January 20th, the fate of the nearly half a million estimated undocumented migrants across the city is an increasingly pressing issue, and dominated the roughly hour-long back and forth between the mayor and reporters.
Mayor Adams did clearly state a few different times that he does “not support mass deportations,” but was reluctant to spell out what that would entail specifically, particularly as the incoming Trump administration appears eager to make good on its promise to implement them. Efforts from reporters to pin down his opinion on Trump’s stated agenda went mostly nowhere. Asked by La Voce whether or not New York was a “sanctuary for criminals,” as Trump’s incoming immigration czar Tom Homan said yesterday on Fox News, he assured us that “this is the greatest city on the globe” without commenting further on Homan or his statement.
One major question is what will become of the city’s sanctuary laws under Trump, and while Eric Adams has previously declared his opposition to measures implemented by past mayors (specifically De Blasio), his description of how he wants the city to function signaled support for them overall. “I want people to continue to go to school, I want people to continue to use our hospital systems, I want people to know that if they are the victim of crime then they should report those criminal actions against them,” the mayor said. “I don’t want to go to the days where people hide in the shadows.”
Support for sanctuary city laws is implied in these statements, as they allow undocumented migrants to use these institutions and services without fear of being reported to ICE, but the comment stops short of describing if or how the mayor could oppose the federal government’s plans to deport in spite of them. In the same interview as his “sanctuary for criminals” comment, Tom Homan said “we’re going to do the job with or without you,” appearing to set up a showdown between the city’s government on one hand, and the incoming president’s on the other.
As far as how City Hall will help or hinder the White House on the issue, the mayor aimed for a positive note while remaining sparse on details. “I’m hoping this administration will hear what I’m saying,” Adams said, “and listen to some of the ideas that I’ve been pushing for close to two years now.” Adams’ proposals, which he touched on briefly, were mainly focused on giving migrants work permits so they can support themselves, as well as giving the government the latitude to initially direct migrants to different parts of the country based on need and capacity. The mayor said that from one mayor to the next, New York has “remained consistent in treating people with the dignity that they deserve, and that’s not going to change.”
As questions on mass deportation continued with imprecise responses from the mayor, he at one point resorted to blaming reporters’ methods to justify not answering them. “No matter what I say, people are putting the spin that they want to spin on me. And so, I’m not engaging in that anymore,” Adams said. “Many of you have your stories written already.”
This La Voce story was written in its entirety after the briefing.
