Adams wants to bypass City Council to tweak NYC ‘sanctuary city’ migrant restrictions: ‘I think they’re wrong’

Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday he is looking for ways to go around the city Council to tweak the city’s “sanctuary” status.

NEW YORK POST | Published December 9, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams is looking for ways to go over the City Council’s head to tweak the Big Apple’s restrictive migrant “sanctuary city” designation, he said during a TV interview Sunday.

“The City Council made it clear they don’t want to change that,” Adams said on CBS’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer.” “They stated they’re not willing to change the sanctuary city law. I think they’re wrong. I have my teams looking at my power as executive orders.

“Do I have the power to do so? I have to protect the people of this city,” he said. “That is my north star.”

The comments come just days after a city lawmaker took the mayor to task over the city’s sanctuary status, something Adams has backed until his recent waffling on the issue.

“Tough talk is good but actions speak louder,” Queens Councilman Robert Holden said Wednesday. “The mayor had the chance to amend or repeal sanctuary city laws through his Charter Revision Commission but chose not to. Now, it’s time to right these wrongs.”

Holden called on the city to reopen a federal immigration office at Rikers Island that was shut down in 2015 by then Mayor Bill de Blasio as a first step — with a pair of New York City federal immigration bigwigs voicing support for the idea one day later.

A City Hall spokesperson countered that Adams would be breaking the law if he reversed the migrant designation, noting that it’s the council that has the authority to do so.

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