New York City Reopens Jails to ICE to Combat Violent Crime and Gangs

GBBC –

In a major reversal, New York Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that his city will build a new relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allowing officers into the city’s main jail in an as-yet murky role.

Mr. Adams emerged from a meeting with White House border czar Tom Homan to announce the deal. He also said he will find more ways for the New York Police Department to work with ICE on gang and criminal investigations.

“We are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island — as was the case for 20 years — but now, instead, ICE agents would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs,” the Democratic mayor said.

Experts said they weren’t clear on what sort of access that actually means for ICE deportation officers, but immigration activists feared the worst.

Mr. Adams becomes the latest — and by far highest-profile — Democrat to embrace a get-tough approach on immigration enforcement, reversing years of resistance in a city that pioneered sanctuary policies.

Mr. Adams said he recognized the role immigrants have played in New York “but we must fix our long-broken immigration system.”

1 of 3 Men Behind ‘Nuisance’ Mon View Heights Complex Surrenders to Police

He pointed to the wave of migrants that crested in the city over the last three years, drawn by lax Biden border policies.

Mr. Adams said New York received more than 230,000 migrants, and the city spent $7 billion to accommodate them “with little help from the previous administration.”

“That is why I have been clear that I want to work with the new federal administration, not war with them, to find common ground and make better the lives of New Yorkers,” he said on social media.

Immigration activists were livid over the reversal.

“Eric Adams has no integrity,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.

He suggested the mayor’s deal was a payback to the Trump administration for ordering the suspension of an ongoing Justice Department prosecution of Mr. Adams.

“This is a deal made with the devil to try to roll back our city’s longstanding sanctuary laws and policies – policies that allow all New Yorkers to live freely while improving everyone’s public safety,” Mr. Awawdeh said. “History will not look kindly on his betrayal of our communities.”

About The Author