(The Center Square) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he is open to deporting migrants who have been charged with crimes ahead of a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s new Border Czar Tom Homan.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Adams said he has requested a meeting with Homan to talk about the incoming Trump administration’s plans for dealing with the influx of immigrants that have overwhelmed the city’s emergency shelter system. He said he doesn’t plan to fight Trump’s pledges to deport criminals illegally living in America.
“I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we are going to address those who are harming our citizens,” the Democrat told reporters. “I’m going to be working with this administration.”
Adams said he supports the deportation of migrants accused of crimes, an apparent shift in his position that deportations should be conducted only after a criminal suspect is convicted of a crime or serves a jail sentence.
“My position is people who commit crimes in our city, you have abdicated your right to be in our city and I am open to figure out the best way to address that,” he said. “Those who are here committing crimes, robberies, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people, have been a harm to our country.”
Homan has said the Trump administration will be seeking to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities such as New York, and has warned that local leaders won’t be able to stop the feds from deporting migrant criminals.
“If we can’t get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City,” Homan told Fox News recently. “Because we’re going to do the job with you or without you.”
Adams said most migrants come to the country looking for work and don’t break the law, but acknowledged that “the American people have communicated to us loudly and clearly” in the Nov. 5 election that they want immigration reform and secure borders.
“We have a broken system they want to fix and we need to fix our immigration system,” he said. “We need to secure our border and we need to make sure that whomever we parole into this country is going to have an opportunity to work in this country.”
New York City has had an influx of more than 200,000 asylum seekers amid a historic surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past two years. More than 56,000 migrants currently under the city’s care.
Adams said Tuesday the city has already spent more than $6.4 billion on housing, food and other necessities for more than 200,000 migrants, many of whom have been bused to the city from the southern border.
Meanwhile, immigration advocates and some state lawmakers are calling for $165 million in new funding for expanded legal services for migrants who face possible deportation by the Trump administration.