NYC Mayor Says He Wants to Work With Trump on Immigration

(Bloomberg) -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the US immigration system broken and said he’d reach out to Donald Trump’s incoming administration with suggestions as the president-elect’s policy agenda takes shape.

Most Read from Bloomberg

“I believe we can be helpful,” Adams said in a press conference Tuesday, adding “no one has gone through” what his own administration has gone through, with more than 200,000 migrants arriving in the city in the last two years. “Voters said, ‘This is a problem.’”

While Adams emphasized that he’s against the types of mass deportation that Trump and his surrogates advocated during the presidential campaign, he said City Council members should change local rules to allow for more coordination with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency when it comes to criminal cases.

Newcomers should be treated “humanely,” Adams told reporters. But he added that “people who are repeat offenders of violent acts, after they serve their time, they should not remain in our city.”

The law currently allows the city to cooperate with ICE detainer requests in cases of individuals who have been convicted of certain violent or serious crimes or are identified as a possible match in the terrorist screening database. The NYPD has said it “does not facilitate the transfer of such persons” to the custody of federal authorities and also doesn’t track the immigration status of people in its custody.

One suggestion for Trump from the mayor: Migrants paroled ahead of asylum hearings should be ordered to wait in parts of the country in need of workers, instead of allowing the migrants to concentrate in just a few cities.

“If you parole into this country, you should be told where you’re going,” he said.

He also reiterated his plea for the federal government to expedite work authorizations for asylum seekers.

As of 2022 there were more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants estimated to be in New York City. Adams emphasized in a press conference after the presidential election last week that he intends to protect them, while Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro sought to reassure migrant communities about the city’s sanctuary laws.

“I want to reassure people that they do not need to self-deport, they do not need to hide,” Castro said Nov. 6. “They can continue to use our city services, especially emergency services, like our Police Department, our hospitals, and so on.”

For two years, Adams warned that the recent influx of migrants — many of whom were bused from the Texas border — could “destroy” New York, repeatedly blaming President Joe Biden’s administration for its failure to manage the crisis and provide cities with the necessary aid to cushion the fiscal blow. Adams threatened drastic budget cuts to city services, trash pickup, library hours and police classes. He’s since reversed those curbs as the number of migrants in the city’s care stabilized and city tax revenue came in much higher than anticipated.

While Trump’s dire warnings about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants were a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, migrants commit crimes at a lower rate than the US-born population, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some studies even indicate that immigration can lower crime when the migrant population becomes well established.

New York has been home to the most immigrants between 2018 and 2022, according to the MPI. Yet the city had the fifth-lowest homicide rate among the 50 largest cities in 2023, police statistics show.

Trump announced Monday that he would install Tom Homan, the former acting head of ICE, as a “border czar.” While Trump’s transition team hasn’t provided details on deportation plans, Homan said in an interview on Fox News that “public safety threats and national security threats” will be the priority.

“We’re going to do the job, without you or with you,” Homan said in a warning to local officials.

--With assistance from Brendan Walsh.

(Adds paragraph with statistics about crime and immigration starting in 12th paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.