(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is vowing to press ahead with efforts to allow federal immigration agents to operate at the Rikers Island jail complex after a ruling by a New York judge temporarily halted the plans.
New York state Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado’s order, issued Friday, extended a temporary restraining order issued earlier in the week blocking the executive order authorizing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to set up office space at the notorious prison. Rosado set a May 28 hearing to consider the lawsuit, filed by the City Council.
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said Friday that the Adams administration was “disappointed” by the judge’s ruling but vowed to press on with the efforts, saying the plans to cooperate with ICE are “rooted” in public safety concerns.
“It is preventing us from protecting New Yorkers from violent transnational criminal gangs that have been declared terrorist organizations,” Mastro told reporters Friday. “I don’t think the city council should be arguing in court that federal law enforcement should be denied sources of information that will help them prosecute.”
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who filed the lawsuit, praised the ruling to block the mayor’s “illegal order” to allow ICE onto Rikers “protects public safety and Constitutional rights in New York City from the Trump administration’s attempt to seize power over our city at the expense of New Yorkers.”
“The Trump administration has shown its willingness to violate the U.S. Constitution by unlawfully disappearing people from our country without due process or justification,” she said in a statement. “Mayor Adams’ attempt to fulfill his end of the corrupt bargain by handing the keys to Rikers over to Trump’s ICE would make our city and New Yorkers less safe.”
Mastro issued the April 8 ICE order less than a week after a federal judge formally dropped the bribery and corruption case against Adams at the Justice Department’s behest.
The lawsuit alleges that the Adams administration’s push for an ICE office was part of a “corrupt bargain” between Trump and Adams to drop the indictment against the mayor. Adams has denied allegations that he received a “quid pro quo” over his support for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
ICE agents previously had an office at the city-run jail, which is located on an island in New York City’s East River. However, the agency was banned from a permanent presence on the island in 2014 under New York City’s “sanctuary” laws, which limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The Adams administration stated in the order that federal agents are needed on Rikers to help the city combat “violent transnational gangs and criminal enterprises,” citing the Trump administration’s recent designation of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations. It does not give ICE permission to carry out civil immigration enforcement or arrest people just for being undocumented.
