New York City councillors are suing Mayor Eric Adams to stop federal immigration agents from allowing them to operate within the Rikers Island prison.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the city council accused Adams of agreeing to a plan to “pay it off” the Trump administration by dropping criminal charges against him.
The executive order allowing immigration and customs enforcement agencies and other federal agencies to maintain office space in prisons alleges that they use their offices for personal benefit to violate the city’s ban on civil servants.
In an email statement, mayoral spokesman Kayla Mamelak Altus said the city will consider the council’s lawsuit. She added, “it appears to be against the public interest in protecting New Yorkers from violent criminals.”
Adams has repeatedly denied dealing with the Trump administration over criminal cases.
Ice Agent previously existed at the Riker’s Island facility on an unreachable island in the East River, but was effectively prohibited from running a business under New York City Sanctuary Act in 2014.
Last December, Adams wanted access to Riker after a meeting with President Trump’s border emperor Tom Homan, and his administration was considering “exceptions” to the sanctuary law.
In February, after another meeting with Homan, Adams announced that he would once again allow ice agents in the prison complex to support gang and drug-related investigations.
The meeting comes days after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss Adams’ charges. The next day, the request was made in federal court. This is a move that immigration rights groups and critics of Adams quickly cast as Quid Pro Quo.
“To ensure that there is no even a conflict, he has announced that he will represent his first vice mayor, Randy Mastro, to handle all decisions regarding the return of the ice to Rikers Island.
As a result, it was signed by Mastro, not Adams, that Ice had allowed her to return to Rikers Island on April 8th.
In their lawsuit, city council members said the delegation was illegal and unprecedented.
“The mayor has never delegated the executive order and no one other than the mayor has signed it,” the complaint states.
Adams, a Democrat who runs for reelection as an independent, has been urging Trump since November, calling for critics who say more should be done to stop the administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Among the many candidates seeking to replace him as mayor in the upcoming election is Adrianne Adams, the current chair of the city council.
“The mayor has compromised the sovereignty of our city and is now threatening the safety of all New Yorkers, so he has filed this lawsuit to stop the illegal order that he shamelessly previewed in Tom Homan and Fox News Couch,” Adrienne Adams said Tuesday. “When New Yorkers work with police in our city, discourage them from reporting crimes and asking for help, it reduces safety for everyone in our city.”
Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.
