Judge blocks NYC mayor's office from bringing ICE agents onto Rikers Island
Published in News & Features
NEW YORK — A Manhattan Supreme Court justice on Friday blocked the Adams administration from bringing federal immigration officers onto Rikers Island.
The preliminary injunction will prevent agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies from setting up shop at the jail complex until the case, filed by the New York City Council against the mayor and his administration, is resolved.
“New York City, which thrives as a global hub due in large part to its reputation as being a welcoming home for immigrant communities from around the world, risks having this goodwill and invaluable reputation irreparably damaged as a result of an Executive Order borne out of Mayor Adams’ alleged conflict of interest,” Justice Mary Rosado wrote in her decision.
The mayor’s top deputy, Randy Mastro, signed an executive order in April to give the green light to federal agents to operate offices on Rikers. The Council filed the suit challenging it a week later, arguing that the order was unlawful and the “poisoned fruit” of a corrupt deal with the Trump administration.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is currently running for mayor, said in a statement that the decision was a “victory” that would protect New Yorkers from Trump’s immigration “overreach.”
“New Yorkers are counting on our city to protect their civil rights, and yet, Mayor Adams has attempted to betray this obligation by handing power over our city to Trump’s ICE because he is compromised,” she said. “This attempted corrupt bargain to allow ICE to set up a center on Rikers would only make our city, and all New Yorkers, less safe.”
“We disagree with the judge’s decision, and we remain confident we will ultimately prevail in this case,” Mastro said in a statement. “At no point does the judge dispute that the substance of our executive order fully complies with local law — that’s because it does. Furthermore, there is no actual conflict of interest here, and the mayor responded to the appearance of a conflict by delegating this issue to me as his first deputy mayor — whom the judge herself described as an ‘accomplished and highly educated attorney’ — and I acted entirely independently of the mayor.”
Trump’s deportation efforts in New York have ramped up in recent weeks, with agents lurking in the city’s immigration courthouses to arrest immigrants checking in for routine court proceedings in their asylum cases.
The mayor’s attorneys have argued that any risks of imminent harm are no more than speculation. The judge wrote that she found that argument “disingenuous.”
“It is akin to the police telling a 911 caller that they will not assist a victim who calls while a burglar attempts to enter her house but will be helped once the burglar enters her house,” Rosado wrote.
The judge also wrote that the Council was likely to succeed in showing that, at the very least, the mayor appeared to be executing a corrupt deal with the Trump administration by agreeing to bring ICE back onto Rikers.
The mayor was indicted on bribery charges in September, and was set to go on trial in April until President Trump’s Department of Justice ordered the charges dropped, in part because they impeded Adams’ ability to help carry out the president’s hardline immigration agenda.
That directive prompted waves of resignations within Manhattan Federal Court, including that of then-U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon — who alleged there was a quid pro quo between Adams and Trump.
Murad Awawdeh, the president of the New York Immigration Coalition, said that the ruling would prevent “thousands” of those in pretrial detention at Rikers from being deported: “New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump’s mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws,” Awawdeh said.
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