New York City First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro signed an executive order Tuesday allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to reestablish an office on Rikers Island, rolling back a provision of the city’s sanctuary protections that had been on the books for more than a decade.
Mastro’s order cited “transnational gangs such as MS-13 and Tren de Aragua” gangs recently designated terrorist organizations by the Trump administration and cited in deportation actions. “It is critical that federal law enforcement agencies are able to share intelligence with the DOC and NYPD in real-time about criminal gang activity among individuals both inside and outside of DOC custody,” Mastro wrote as a justification to allow federal immigration authorities back onto the island jail complex.
The move was swiftly slammed by criminal justice and immigration rights advocates, who contend it will reopen a pipeline from city jails to deportation proceedings that had previously ensnared around 3,500 people a year before a 2014 law barred ICE from operating on Rikers Island.
“Exactly ten years ago today, on Valentine’s Day, ICE’s trailer on Rikers Island was shut down,” the Bronx Defenders, a public defense organization, said in a statement. “Yet rather than celebrate this historic milestone, the Mayor is rolling back the clock as he attempts to reopen the door to deportation in New York City jails.”
The executive order came more than a month after Mayor Eric Adams had promised he would draft such an order, following a meeting with President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan and a demand by the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss corruption charges against Adams in order, it said, to ensure his cooperation on immigration enforcement.
The federal judge in his case dismissed the charges last week, emphasizing in his decision that the arrangement “smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
Earlier Tuesday Adams said he had recused himself from signing the promised executive order, telling Politico New York that, in order “to maintain trust” with New Yorkers, any decision about allowing federal officials onto Rikers would be handled by Mastro.
Still, in a statement Tuesday night, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called the executive order “deeply concerning” saying it was, “hard not to see this action as connected to the dismissal of the Mayor’s case and his willingness to cooperate with Trump’s extreme deportation agenda that is removing residents without justification or due process.”
The council could potentially sue the mayor over violations of the city’s sanctuary policy and Speaker Adams, who is running for the Democratic primary nomination for mayor in June, said the body is reviewing its legal options.
“As we have made abundantly clear, Local Law 58 of 2014 has clear guidelines that prohibit the use of office space on Rikers for the enforcement of civil immigration enforcement,” she wrote. “The Council is closely reviewing the order, and is prepared to defend against violations of the law to protect the safety of all New Yorkers.”
The 2014 law does, however, appear to allow the mayor to use an executive order to allow ICE back onto Rikers, as long as the goal is “unrelated to the enforcement of civil immigration laws.”
The executive order signed Tuesday night also restates that while federal immigration authorities can reopen an office on Rikers, but that their work there, “will be limited to purposes unrelated to the enforcement of civil immigration laws.”
The 2014 detainer law to remains in effect, prohibiting the city Department of Correction from holding detainees on ICE’s behalf unless presented with a judicial warrant or if the person has been convicted of certain serious violent offenses.
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