Mayor Eric Adams welcomed Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” at Gracie Mansion for a highly anticipated face-to-face Thursday over the president-elect’s migrant deportation plans.
Adams, in a news conference that followed the hour-long meeting with Tom Homan, said he was eyeing an executive order to “unravel” confusing rules and policies for how New York City can work with federal immigration authorities.
“I’m going to use my executive power to go after dangerous people who are committing violence acts as migrants and asylum seekers,” he said.
“We will not be a safe haven for those who commit violent acts. We don’t do it for those who are citizens, and we are not going to do it for those who are undocumented.”
A combative Adams — who started the presser by assailing reporters as having “distorted views” about his immigration policy — offered few details regarding the conversation, but said soon-to-be czar Honan shares his own desire to keep New York City from being a “safe haven” for dangerous criminals.
When pressed for specifics, Adams repeated his recent hardline stance on the city’s sanctuary status in the weeks after Trump’s election, notably his willingness to deport migrants after they’ve been charged with crime, but before they’ve been convicted and have served their time.
He told The Post during the briefing that his legal team is looking into an executive order that changes the city’s sanctuary policies – and said they’ll concentrate on those restricting work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We need to unravel them and get clarity on what we can do,” he said.
“There are 170 crimes that currently allow us to communicate and collaborate with ICE after a conviction. We need to examine them and see what, again, my authority using executive orders to ensure that I keep New Yorkers safe. That’s my only goal, I can not make it clearer.
“If pursuing that goal means that my years and years of advocating for immigrants that are here trying to find the American dream, if that demonizes me, then I’m going to take it.”
Sources said that Adams’ legal team is working with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security as they look to craft the executive order to target violent migrants.
The mayor said he’ll release more information on the potential order “once we come to full understanding.”
Hizzoner’s increasing warmness with Trump’s policies prompted city Comptroller Brad Lander, a potential mayoral challenger, to blast Adams.
Any order, though, by Adams’ own admission, would only address a small fraction of the tens of thousands of migrants who have been living in the Big Apple on the taxpayers’ dime.
Adams didn’t elaborate on his talk with Homan, beyond their shared concern of migrant criminals, such as those in the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Currently, nearly 57,000 asylum seekers call New York City their temporary home.
The Post spotted Homan’s black SUV driving into Gracie Mansion about 15 minutes before his scheduled 1 p.m. meeting with Adams.
The SUV left an hour later, followed by Adams’ own car as he was shuttled to his 3 p.m. news conference in City Hall.
The defiant tone struck by Adams during the presser echoed the lashing words favored by Trump, both for himself and those advancing his agenda, including Homan, who didn’t respond to The Post’s requests for comment on the meeting.
The sit-down came at a fraught moment for New York City and its mayor.
The Big Apple is the nation’s largest sanctuary city – a designation first set under Mayor Ed Koch that denotes a set of policies limiting local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
Homan, like Trump, has been vocally hostile to sanctuary cities.
He has vowed to not let cities’ sanctuary status get in the way of Trump’s promised mass deportations — and coupled his promise with a threat to withhold federal funding if they don’t cooperate.
The specter of mass deportations has caused unease for many in the Big Apple, a metropolis historically defined by its openness to immigrants, home to the Statue of Liberty that beckons “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Adams, a Republican turned Democrat, has tried during his mayoralty to toe a line between enacting liberal policies and pushing back against perceived progressive excesses – a precarious position that likely will be amplified in a second Trump presidency.
But Adams’ once-ascendant star within the Democratic party has fallen, especially after his historic federal indictment on bribery and corruption charges, which he denies.
Since the indictment, Adams – who previously called himself the “Biden of Brooklyn” – has cozied up to the president-elect as many in his circle view a Trump administration as a godsend for his legal defense and even signaled he wouldn’t rule out rejoining the GOP.
Adams’ shift toward Trump followed his harsh criticism of President Biden’s border policies as hundreds of thousands of migrants flowed into New York City.
But Adams has largely cast the migrant crisis as a humanitarian problem and avoided demonizing the asylum seekers arriving in the city.
As recently as last week, Adams not only said he would oppose deportations of hardworking undocumented New Yorkers, but also told reporters that only a “small number” of migrants commit violence in the city.
By Thursday, Adams appeared double-down on his call to boot allegedly violent migrants in lieu of trials.
Critics have been aghast at Adams’ stance that migrants could be deported before convictions, casting it as flagrantly flouting due process.
Brooklyn Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), during an NY1 interview, appeared to dig at Adams’ own criminal case as he argued undocumented migrants convicted of felonies – and not merely charged – should be deported.
“I think the mayor, especially, should understand the importance of due process and the importance of innocent until proven guilty, and should recognize that everyone in this country under our rule of law, under our system deserves due process,” he said.
Hizzoner’s increasing warmness with Trump’s proposed immigration policies prompted city Comptroller Brad Lander, a potential mayoral challenger, to blast Adams.
“Eric Adams is so focused on cozying up to Trump that he is willing to deny people due process and put the safety of families at risk,” Lander said in a statement.
“This open-armed embrace of Trump’s xenophobic policies is a betrayal of everyone who calls New York City home.”
Not all New York City elected officials agreed.
“This is a critical step in the right direction, and as mayor, he must fully leverage his legal authority to protect New Yorkers,” said Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“With the announcement of another Charter Revision Commission, I urge the mayor to seize this opportunity to address this issue head-on and put it before the voters.”
— Additional reporting by Haley Brown and Aneeta Bhole
