NYC mayor addresses Trump’s deportation plan

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said he is willing to work with the incoming Trump administration to solve the migrant crisis that has gripped the Big Apple, stating that the American people have spoken. Adams said at a news conference on Tuesday he thought he could be of assistance to the Trump administration as he lamented what he called the ‘broken’ immigration system under President Joe Biden.

But Adams went on to declare that New York City is a sanctuary city – meaning that its laws limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration officials. ‘This is a sanctuary city,’ the Democrat mayor said, The City reports. ‘Those laws are in place. ‘I want people to continue to go to school. I want people to use our hospital systems. I want people to know that if they’re a victim of a crime , they should report those criminal actions against them.

‘I don’t wanna go to the days where people are going to hide in the shadows.’ His response, though, only came after repeated questioning, as Adams hit out at the current administration for its immigration policies that allowed migrants to continue crossing the southern border – and suggested Trump may be able to fix it. ‘I am willing to sit down with this administration like I tried to sit down with the previous administration in my 10 trips to Washington to say: we have a problem that is overrunning our cities,’ he told reporters, according to Politico.

‘I’m hoping this administration will hear what I’m saying and listen to some of the ideas that I have been pushing for… close to two years now.’ Adams went on to say he was not surprised by the support Trump received in the five boroughs, noting that many Trump supporters listed immigration as one of their top concerns. ‘The voters are stating, “We need to secure our border, we need to make sure cities are not experiencing what New York City experienced,’ the mayor said, according to the New York Post.

‘The voters communicated loudly and clearly: We have a broken immigration system, it needs to be fixed. That’s the only conversation I want,’ he continued. ‘Let’s fix our immigration system,’ Adams declared. ‘If we don’t have a conversation about fixing the system, everything else is just being philosophical and theoretical and I’m not going to engage in that.’ Adams also said that ‘New York City was devastated by that broken [immigration] system,’ with more than 220,000 migrants flooding the streets of the five boroughs in recent years.

‘No one has gone through what this administration has gone through, and I believe we can be very helpful in how we address this issue in a very real way.’ When pressed on how the administration is dealing with the crisis Adams emphasized the need to expedite ‘right to work’ programs which allow migrants to earn a paycheck. He also said the city will be reaching out to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, and city agencies will work toward getting ‘clarity on what we can and can’t do.’

But immigration advocates said the mayor should be clearer about his plans for the city’s estimated 412,000 undocumented migrants. ‘What we need to hear out of the mayor is that he is going to enforce the local laws that are on the books that are under his power and assure that all city agencies are complying with local law,’ New York Immigration Coalition President and CEO Murad Awawdeh said. ‘Meaning that we are a sanctuary city and that we will not be participating in any mass deportation efforts that are happening because that is not who we are. [These are] not the values of our city.’

Some migrants at The Roosevelt Hotel shelter have previously said they are ‘terrified’ of being deported under Trump, with one man telling DailyMail.com he is already planning to flee the US and go to Costa Rica. ‘I am a scared man,’ he said. ‘I don’t want them to grab me and hold me in some immigration jail for who knows how long.’ Others, though, were confident they will be allowed to stay because they haven’t committed crimes.

They said they support Trump’s plan to get rid of violent criminals, and are not worried about being swept up in his plans to carry out sweeping deportations. ‘[Trump] says he’s going to deport the illegal migrants which is not a bad thing. We came here to work and we’re not all the same…. We’re not undocumented,’ Venezuelan Fernando Peralta said as he sold drinks from a cooler outside the shelter. He is registered as an asylum seeker, which gives him hope he will be allowed to remain in the US. ‘We’re gonna be fine cause the government should go after the bad guys,’ he added.

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