(The Center Square) — Federal immigration officials will have a permanent office on New York City’s notorious Rikers Island prison under a directive from the Adams administration, which says the move will help with investigations of transnational gangs and terrorist groups.
An executive order, signed Tuesday by New York City’s First Deputy Mayor Randy Maestro, permits the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to set up office space on the island, which houses city jails. They will work with the city’s Correction Intelligence Bureau to investigate alleged “violent criminals and gangs, crimes committed at or facilitated by persons in DOC custody, and drug trafficking,” the order states.
“It is critical that federal law enforcement agencies are able to share intelligence with the Department of Correction and NYPD in real-time about criminal gang activity among individuals both inside and outside of DOC custody,” it says.
Maestro said that reestablishing space on Rikers for ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies “will allow our correctional intelligence bureau to better coordinate on criminal investigations — in particular, those focused on violent transnational criminal gangs — and make our city safer.”
“This is about public safety and protecting all New Yorkers,” Maestro, a former Rudy Giuliani chief of staff, said in a statement.
Several media outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported that Adams was recusing himself from the matter to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest following the Department of Justice’s decision to dismiss his federal corruption case last week. An Adams spokesperson said the Democrat has “delegated all powers and responsibilities” of the effort to reopen the offices to Maestro “to maintain trust” of the city’s residents.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe and ensuring their government works transparently have always been top priorities for Mayor Adams,” City Hall said in a statement.
The move re-establishes ICE at the notorious prison after a decade-long hiatus, officials said. Federal immigration agents have been prohibited from having an office on Rikers since the city passed a bill in 2014 that restricts cooperation between ICE officials and the city’s Department of Correction.
The move to reopen the offices drew praise from Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” who posted on social media that it was “a great first step in our continuing collaboration to make NYC even safer as President Trump has committed to.”
But immigrant rights groups criticized the move, arguing that it will open the door to potential violations of the city’s sanctuary laws and inmates’ due process rights.
“By giving ICE the keys to Rikers Island, the Adams administration is once again selling out New Yorkers for Trump’s dangerous deportation regime,” Zach Ahmad, senior policy counsel at the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “New Yorkers see this for what it is: Mayor Adams skirting the City Council, cozying up to Trump, and putting immigrant New Yorkers in harm’s way.”
