A New York State Supreme Court has extended a temporary restraining order blocking Mayor Eric Adams from allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from operating an office on Rikers Island.
Following a brief hearing in court in Lower Manhattan Friday afternoon, Judge Mary Rosado decided to postpone any decision until after a formal hearing on the matter, for which a date for which has not yet been set.
At issue was an executive order signed by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro on April 9, allowing ICE and possibly other federal agencies to work out of an office on Rikers Island. The order was published a week after a judge formally dropped the corruption case against Adams at the behest of President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
The New York City Council promptly sued last week, arguing Adams was violating the city’s Conflict of Interest law that prohibits public officials from deriving personal benefits from their office. The Council’s attorneys argue that Adams received leniency from Trump’s Justice Department in exchange for assistance on immigration enforcement.
During Friday’s hearing, attorney Daniel Kornstein, a partner at the private law firm Emery Celli who is representing the City Council, described the Rikers Executive order as a “corrupt deal” and argued at stake was the “loss of trust in the immigrant community and the community at large.”
Kornstein pointed to a recent press conference where Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan appeared beside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Mayor Adams and members of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations to announce the indictments of 27 alleged members of the Venezuelan Gang Tren del Aragua, arguing that it was proof that local and federal authorities are already capable of coordinating on criminal matters without a home base on Rikers Island.
“They don’t need to do [this],” Kornstein said, referring to the new office on Rikers. “It’s for an ulterior purpose, it’s not for criminal enforcement. It’s to expand and drum up deportations.”
Defending City Hall’s position, James Catterson, a private attorney, argued the Council couldn’t prove “irreparable harm” given the city has yet to solidify the Rikers arrangement with any federal agency. In an unusual move, the city’s own Law Department has said it will not be representing the mayor.
“This is nothing more than a political statement masquerading as a petition,” Catterson said, alluding to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’s mayoral campaign.
Following the ruling, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said they were “disappointed” in the judge’s ruling and said their efforts to work with ICE are rooted in safety.
“It is preventing us from protecting New Yorkers from violent transnational criminal gangs that have been declared terrorist organizations,” he said.
In court on Friday, Kornstein said he intended to subpoena Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to testify at the upcoming hearing to discuss the deal he made with Adams.
Before the current city sanctuary laws came into effect, between 3,000 and 4,000 noncitizens from Rikers Island were funneled into deportation proceedings each year. That could happen for immigrants with legal status for even minor convictions, while undocumented people apprehended on even minor charges could be handed off to ICE at times before they’d been convicted of any crime, advocates said.
That changed in 2014 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, when the City Council passed a law that ejected ICE from Rikers Island and also blocked the NYPD and the Department of Correction from honoring most requests by the agency to hold detainees on their behalf.
The law did allow the mayor the power to reestablish an outpost on Rikers Island with an executive order like the one signed by Mastro earlier this month, as long as federal agents there were only involved in criminal investigations and not civil immigration enforcement leading to deportations.
But in their lawsuit, the City Council argues there’s no way for the city to assure ICE and other federal agencies operating on the island would not be participating in civil enforcement, given the current Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda.
At a press conference earlier in the week announcing the Tren del Aragua indictment in Lower Manhattan, Border Czar Homan had a message for Judge Rosado, saying “collaboration works, it keeps the city of New York safe.”
Homan once again threatened sanctuary designations like New York would end up having more “collateral” arrests for not coordinating with ICE, referring to the arrest of undocumented immigrants with no prior criminal charges or convictions.
“More officers in your neighborhoods, that means more collateral arrests because when we find the bad guy…others who are in the country illegally, and they’re coming too.” Homan said. “Work with us. Give us access to the person that you locked in a jail cell.”
Late last week, ICE announced a recent operation where federal teams made 206 arrests in New York City and its outskirts. Of those, the agency said 121 had prior convictions or facing charges, pointing to another 85 people who’d been apprehended for civil immigration violations.
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