New York City Mayor Eric Adams provided some clarity on what his approach will be to immigration enforcement when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, saying he is open to meeting with incoming border czar Tom Homan to discuss the deportation of migrant criminals.
"Those who are here committing crimes, shooting up officers, raping innocent people, have been a harm to our country. I want to sit down and hear the plan on how we're going to address them. Those are the people I'm talking about and I'd love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts," Adams said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Asked to clarify his comments, Adams took a combative stance, telling reporters to "Google what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama said about those who commit crimes in our city and country." "They said they need to get out right away. This is not a new position. In the era of cancel culture, no one is afraid to be honest about the truth. Well, cancel me because I'm going to protect the people of our city," he said.
President-elect Trump has vowed to begin what he has described as the largest deportation operation in "American history" by ejecting undocumented migrants with a criminal history. And while Adams said he was discussing this group, those who fit this criteria only make up a small fraction of the migrant population, a new analysis showed.
Less than 0.5% of the 1.8 million cases in immigration courts during the past fiscal year— involving about 8,400 people— included deportation orders for alleged crimes other than entering the U.S. illegally, an Axios review of government data published this week found.
The figures don't include more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions in the past few decades, many of whom are being held in federal, state or local facilities. About 29,000 felons have been convicted of homicide or sexual assault. All of them would enter the deportation process in immigration— but not until after serving their sentences, Axios said.
There are roughly 24.5 million noncitizen immigrants in the U.S., including those here awaiting asylum decisions or otherwise lawfully in the country, according to the Pew Research Center. Immigration courts recorded 1,798,964 new cases from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
Just 0.47% of those cases involved possible deportation for alleged criminal activity.
Adams's approach to immigration enforcement during the incoming Trump administration is under the spotlight, considering New York City is one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the nation.
On the day after the election, he reaffirmed that New York is a sanctuary city but sidestepped reporters' questions about whether he would actively resist federal deportation efforts. At that same press conference, his immigration affairs commissioner, Manuel Castro, went further, telling reporters in Spanish that city agencies "will not be following the instructions of the federal government in cases of mass deportations."
A week later, Adams seemingly shifted his view, suggesting he could assist the Trump administration, according to New York Magazine. "I believe we can be very helpful in how we address this issue in a very real way," he told reporters.
Another reason may be behind Adams' seemingly soft stance on mass deportation— his emerging relationship with Trump himself.
Trump has spoken disparagingly about Adams's corruption charges, comparing them to his own federal criminal charges and claiming them to be based on politics rather than actual legal ground. Adams has also dined, formed alliances with and even hired local entertainers and businesspeople who are close to Trump.
Likewise, at an October charity event in Manhattan, Trump stood at a lectern, turning to address Adams: "We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric."
