Trump's 'captive'? Dems say NYC mayor's scandal threatens migrant 'sanctuary'
NEW YORK − Mayor Eric Adams insists he’s working with the Trump administration to keep New Yorkers safe by overriding longstanding local laws limiting law enforcement from working with federal immigration agents.
Democratic officials in the city, however, say the mayor is being held captive over federal corruption charges that have, for now, been dropped. New Yorkers, especially immigrants in the global city, are collateral, they said.
“He’s being held hostage, but he’s being held hostage at his will,” Council Member Carmen de la Rosa said at a rally Friday afternoon outside City Hall. “Because he is choosing to sell out the people of New York for his own freedom, without regard to the people whose freedom he is selling out.”
Earlier this week, the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan not to prosecute Adams on corruption charges, in part to allow him to advance President Donald Trump's priorities on immigration enforcement. The acting interim U.S. attorney resigned, as did six other prosecutors in New York and at department headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Adams denied making an agreement with the Trump administration. "I never offered − nor did anyone offer on my behalf − any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case," he said. "Never."
City officials cited Adams' appearance Friday morning on the conservative talk show "Fox & Friends" as just the latest example of his willingness to help Trump's immigration crackdown.
Adams sat alongside Tom Homan, the White House “border czar,” to outline priorities in immigration enforcement.
"If he doesn't come through, I'll be back in New York City, and we won't be sitting on a couch,” Homan said. “I'll be in his office, up his butt saying where the hell is the agreement we came to?”
“And I want ICE to deliver,” Adams, a Democrat who is up for re-election in 2025, said. “We're going to deliver for the safety of the people in New York City.”
The exchange was not lost in New York, where 40% of the 8.3 million residents are immigrants and over 400,000 people are estimated to not have legal status in the country, city data showed. Decades of Democratic and Republican mayors, including Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, have limited the New York Police Department’s cooperation with immigration enforcement, under so-called "sanctuary" laws.
“If the Trump White House can do this to this mayor, what message does that send to every other city, every other mayor, who wants to protect their residents?” said city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who is in line for mayor should Adams step down or be forced out by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
For months, city officials have called on Hochul to remove the mayor under the City Charter. She hasn't ruled it out, but warned against “knee-jerk” reactions.
Reuters reported Friday that a federal prosecutor agreed to file a motion to dismiss the case against Eric Adams to prevent other staffers from being fired for refusing to get rid of the case. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News she expected charges to be dropped Friday.
The Justice Department memo, written by Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, ordered prosecutors to drop charges against Adams for bribery and campaign finance crimes, which the mayor has denied.
In response, acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, a temporary Trump appointee in Manhattan, resigned Thursday, calling it “an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case." She had planned to file additional charges against Eric Adams for destroying evidence. At least five other federal prosecutors have also resigned.
In a letter Thursday, Bove called Sassoon’s office “incapable of fairly and impartially reviewing the circumstances of this prosecution.”
On Friday, Hagan Scotten, another prosecutor on the case, also resigned.
"If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion," he said in a letter. "But it was never going to be me."
On Friday, Bondi's chief of staff Chad Mizelle defended cutting the mayor loose.
“The decision to dismiss the indictment of Eric Adams is yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts," Mizelle said. "The fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors. Such individuals have no place at DOJ.”
Eric Adams’ personal lawyer, Alex Spiro, called any idea of a “quid pro quo” a “total lie.”
Adams ICE order is already NYC law
Adams says he'll allow ICE to return to the city's Rikers Island jail complex to identify people suspected of gang activity and violent crimes. His executive action would bypass a 10-year-old city law that removed ICE from Rikers, which mostly holds pretrial detainees. Rikers, which is under a federal monitor, has already been slated for closure in favor of smaller facilities, but Adams has resisted closing the notorious complex.
Still, city officials were bewildered by Adams' action. Local laws already allow ICE to remove people convicted of violent crimes. In a joint statement, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who isn't related to the mayor, and other council members said they'd have to evaluate the order's legality.
"The biggest threat to New York City is Eric Adams in this moment," Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told Paste BN. "It is no one but him."
Homan and Mayor Adams appeared together again in a lengthy interview Friday with TV personality "Dr. Phil" McGraw. The mayor stressed New Yorkers agree with his approach to immigration enforcement to create safety by closing the border and going after "violent individuals."
"I'm really pleased to have this collaboration," he told Dr. Phil. "It was almost as though I was just crying out in the wind, and this administration heard it."
Next to the mayor, Homan sat back in his seat.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, Paste BN