A day after the Trump administration issued another executive order threatening so-called “sanctuary cities” like New York with financial penalties and their elected officials with criminal charges, city Comptroller Brad Lander called on Mayor Eric Adams to allow an independent party to handle all matters related to how and when to defend the city’s sanctuary laws.
“The new EO makes clear they are coming for the funding our budget depends on. We need someone independent to stand up for our budget,” said Lander at a press conference Tuesday morning.
In a letter Lander later sent to Adams, he wrote that in order to “restore trust to New Yorkers, you should not be involved in decision making related to when or how the City defends its sanctuary laws.”
The comptroller, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the June primary, suggested in his letter that the city’s top lawyer, Muriel Goode-Trufant, might do the job. Goode-Trufant was nominated by the mayor and approved by the City Council for her position as corporation counsel, and is obliged to represent the city’s interests.
Lander pointed out Adams had previously delegated the task of signing an executive order allowing ICE back onto Rikers Island to First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, to avoid the appearance of impropriety soon after having his federal charges dropped. Mastro, however, reports solely to Adams.
“We need someone representing New York City on our sanctuary city policies who’s genuinely independent, who can stand up for the law and who is not compromised by their coziness with the Trump administration, and sadly that is not Eric Adams,” Lander said, referring to the alleged quid pro quo in which federal prosecutors dropped charges against Adams seemingly in exchange for his help on immigration enforcement.
In a scathing reply, Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams, rebuffed the request. “While we’ve long known that Brad Lander will say anything for attention, it’s alarming to see his rhetoric growing more desperate and detached from reality by the day,” she said.
Mamelak pointed to other lawsuits against the Trump administration that New York City is involved in that push back against the federal government’s efforts to claw back millions in FEMA funds (a scheme first identified by Lander) and supporting the state’s suit fighting the White House’s attempt to end congestion pricing.
“When the federal government has taken actions that have threatened New York City resources — from FEMA clawbacks to stopping an offshore wind project to health care rollbacks or the pause on congestion pricing — the Adams administration has taken steps to advocate on behalf of New Yorkers. As Mayor Adams has said repeatedly, he is solely beholden to the nearly 8.5 million New Yorkers who call this city home, and his record reflects precisely that,” she said.
Monday’s executive order, titled “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens,” tasks the Department of Justice to make a list of all sanctuary jurisdictions that don’t fully comply with federal immigration enforcement within 30 days, identify additional grants and contracts the federal government could cancel with those jurisdictions and “take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens.”
President Donald Trump signs over 40 executive orders on his first full day in office, Jan. 21, 2025. Credit: The White House/X
It specifically targets in-state tuition benefits to undocumented students, which is currently provided by both the State University of New York and the City University of New York.
It wasn’t clear what steps might follow once DoJ makes its list, and spokespeople for the City Council and City Hall said they’re reviewing the latest order.
Lander’s office previously identified about $8 billion in federal funding that goes to education, social services, housing, homelessness and other city services, accounting for about 7% of the city’s $116 billion budget.
‘The Corrupt Bargain’
So-called sanctuary cities like New York have various rules and local laws that limit the ability of local governments to participate in civil immigration enforcement with ICE. New York City has had versions of these policies on the books since the last 1980’s that were expanded with local laws under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
For years, President Trump has maligned cities like New York as sanctuaries for criminals, and during his first presidency he threatened some funding to sanctuary designations but hit roadblocks in federal court.
Peter Markowitz, an attorney and law professor at Cardozo School of Law who helped craft New York City’s sanctuary protections, pointed to the legal theory referred to as the “anti-commandeering doctrine” derived from the 10th Amendment, which gives the states all powers not specifically delegated to Washington.
“The federal government can’t draft states into their service. They can’t force them to enact federal programs,” Markowitz explained. “Obviously states can’t actively interfere with federal programs, but they can’t be expected to implement the programs themselves unless they independently choose to do so.”
Still, shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting a group of sanctuary cities, and in February, San Francisco sued the federal government, ultimately joined by Portland, Oregon, New Haven, Oakland, Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Santa Fe.
New York City did not join that lawsuit. Mamelak didn’t immediately return a request for comment about why the city hadn’t joined that case.
Last week a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the cities’ behalf, barring the Trump administration from withholding funding from them. But Trump pushed ahead with his subsequent order Monday.
“No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World,” Trump wrote in a press release Monday announcing the latest order. “Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”
The City Council — whose speaker, Adrienne Adams, is also seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the upcoming June primary — has ramped up its defense of the city’s sanctuary policies, suing Adams over the recent executive order signed by Mastro that would allow ICE to reopen an office on Rikers Island.
A state supreme court judge has temporarily blocked City Hall from moving ahead with that until she evaluates the Council’s suit, which argues that “the executive order is unlawful, tainted by the conflict of interest created by the corrupt bargain the mayor entered into.”
The Council voted earlier this month to authorize the body to sue the Trump administration to protect the city’s sanctuary policies, though Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Speaker Adams, said they were reviewing the latest order before filing any potential lawsuit.
“This latest executive order from the White House is yet another flailing attempt to distract as the president’s popularity sinks and the American people reject his chaotic policies,” Desamours said. “Federal courts have already rejected Trump’s attempts to coerce and take funds away from cities in order to support his extreme agenda. Speaker Adams is prepared to take action to protect the City and programs and services relied upon by New Yorkers.”
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