Updated March 6, 2025
Mayor Eric Adams, proud New Yorker and former outspoken champion of New York City’s immigrant communities, never missed an opportunity to declare immigrant communities the heart of America. At one event, he’d say “Everyone knows that New York City is the Athens of America,” At another, “New York City is the Mexico City of America.” The city name could change, but the message was the same: New York was every immigrant community’s second home.
Today, what Mayor Adams won’t say—at least not in full, candid, and unfiltered terms—is that “Everyone knows that New York City is the guinea pig city for Trump’s anti-immigration policies.”
On Fox & Friends two weeks ago, Adams made his position to collaborate with the Trump administration on immigration policies clear beyond misinterpretation: “Let’s be clear: I’m not standing in the way. I’m collaborating.”
It’s a stark reversal from the pre-mayoral and pre-federal-indictment Adams, who positioned himself as a staunch advocate for immigrant rights.
Adams’ voting record and public statements as State Senator (2007–2013) and Brooklyn Borough President (2014–2021), before New Yorkers chose him to be their Mayor in 2021, showed strong support for immigrant communities. He supported initiatives to grant voting rights to certain non-citizens and advocated for issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented residents. He was an active presence at numerous immigrant-focused events throughout the city and consistently condemned ICE arrests in the area. In fact, a month before being elected in 2021, Adams declared that New York would continue to be a sanctuary city under his leadership. “We should protect our immigrants. Period. Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration,” he said via his official X account.
Years later, in 2024, Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges that his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive unlawful foreign donations. As a judge now deliberates whether Adams is working with Trump in the hopes that his federal indictment will be pardoned, it’s important to recognize his openness on collaborating on Trump’s immigration policy —a mass deportation agenda— is not surprising since Adams’ stance on immigrants and immigration has notably shifted since migrants began arriving in New York City by bus in the spring of 2022. Here are the top five instances where Adams turned his back on immigrant communities.
1. “This issue will destroy New York City”
In the fall of 2023 — almost two years after migrants started arriving in New York City, having been bused by Republican states or willingly arrived themselves — Adams said the migration of people to New York would destroy New York City.
“Let me tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” Adams said at a town hall-style gathering on September 6, 2023. “This issue will destroy New York City. […] The city we knew, we are about to lose.”
His slew of similar comments created tension between his administration and fellow Democrats. A couple days after his statement, Adams’ office directed every agency to implement a 5% reduction in city-funded spending. Those proposed budget cuts were billions of dollars higher than the projected estimated cost the city was going to spend on asylum seekers. It drew criticisms from advocates about his rhetoric, who earlier that year had started to say Adams’ math wasn’t math – ing.
A week later, elected officials, including City Comptroller Brad Lander, gathered at a rally to explain why it was unjustifiable for Adams to use the humanitarian migrant crisis as an avenue to implement budget cuts in the city.
He explained that during the summer of that year, the city launched a $10 million program to assist asylum seekers with applications for work authorization, which had helped thousands already. Lander estimated it would take $33 million to assist all new arrivals by year’s end. “If 10% of those folks as a result were able to move out of the shelter, then next year we would save $330 million, and on a 20% we can save up to $660 million… we will have an inclusive economy that works better for all New Yorkers,” he said. The situation was essentially going to be the opposite of migrants destroying the city if Adams’ administration heeded the words of Lander, progressives, and advocates.
2. Adams made several attempts to alter sanctuary city law
Having consistently said his administration and city resources were being strained by the arrival of migrants in New York City, Adams began to look for other avenues in addressing the recent increase in migrant arrivals. This included going above the New York City Council’s authority to roll back NYC’s sanctuary city laws.
“The city council made it clear they don’t want to change that,” Adams said on CBS’s The Point with Marcia Kramer about sanctuary city laws, which prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from collaborating with local law enforcement. “I think they’re wrong. I have my teams looking at my power as executive orders.”
The only way for the city’s sanctuary city laws to be removed is through a legislative process where city council members cast a vote. Experts argued such actions would be illegal. “The mayor’s duty is to enforce the laws that are passed by the city council,” Elora Mukherjee, a professor of law and the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Documented in December.
“Any unilateral effort by Mayor Adams to change New York City’s sanctuary city provisions which were passed into law by the city council would be unlawful, unprecedented and undemocratic abuse of his authority,” Mukherjee added.
3. Adams says immigrants not entitled to the right to due process under U.S. Constitution
At a press conference in December 2024, at one of Mayor Adams’ City Hall press conferences held on Tuesdays, a member of the press threw a question to Adams: “If you were a law abiding asylum seeker in New York City, someone who’s doing the best they can to get ahead, sending their kids to school. Would you be scared about the prospect of the incoming administration?”
Adams responded saying: “The Constitution is for Americans. And I’m not a person that snuck into this country. My ancestors have been here for a long time.”
Many civil and immigrant rights experts, as well as immigrant advocates, immediately criticized Adams’ statement. “The mayor’s claim has no basis in law,” Elora Mukherjee, the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told The Gothamist. “Laws set forth in the Constitution generally apply to everyone present in U.S. soil whether or not they are a citizen and regardless of their immigration status,” she said.
Experts criticized Adams’ statement to mean undocumented immigrants are not entitled to due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. However, the right to due process and equal protection under the law apply to citizens and noncitizens. “Mayor Adams cannot strip immigrants of due process simply because he’d rather cozy up to the incoming Trump administration. Everyone in the United States is entitled to the rights outlined in the Constitution,” said Natalia Aristizabal, the Deputy Director of Make The Road NY, in December.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams later released a statement criticizing the mayor for scapegoating migrants. “He denigrated immigrants and non-citizens as unworthy of basic rights,” he said. “His rhetoric is as dangerous to our city as his leadership has been harmful.”
In the days after his comment, Mayor Adams, however, walked back his comments on NPR’s Morning Edition, saying: “This is a city that’s open to all, and everyone has a right to the protections of the Constitution.”
4. Adams admin issues memo advising “threatened” workers to allow ICE to enter worksite
After a buildup of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies from Adams for the past three years and counting, the straw that broke the camel’s back, in February, was a leaked memo that seemed to instruct staff to grant federal immigration agents access to locations protected under sanctuary laws.
The memo was circulated on Jan. 13 in anticipation of Trump’s return to the White House. The memo, first obtained by Hell Gate, appeared to instruct workers not to allow ICE or other federal agents inside without a warrant but also outlined circumstances in which access could be granted.
“If, at any time, you reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you, you should give the officer the information they have asked for (if available to you) or let them enter the site,” the memo stated. It also warned that concealing, harboring, or shielding an undocumented immigrant from federal officers is a federal offense.
The memo drew immediate backlash from immigrant rights advocates and city council members. After the memo was made public, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, and Immigration Committee Chair Alexa Avilés issued a statement in February, condemning the memo as “inconsistent with city law” and “a betrayal of New Yorkers and our city.”
In an interview with Documented, Avilés explained that the memo “inserted very confusing language that essentially said if ICE presents itself to a city building and you feel fear, you let them do what they want.” She stated that this effectively introduced a “giant loophole” in current policies, emphasizing that its “utterly subjective” interpretation would leave employees unclear about the proper course of action.
5. Adams publicly pledges to collaborate with ICE
Shortly after the news of the leaked memo, Adams added icing to the immigration cake he’s been baking. He agreed to give ICE access to Rikers Island, the city’s jail facility, which primarily houses individuals who have been charged with crimes but not yet convicted.
Adams appeared on the Talk Show, Fox & Friends, with Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan to discuss their plans to collaborate to execute the Trump administration’s immigration policies. As Adams sat beside Homan, Homan said allowing ICE to have access into Rikers Island was just “step one,” as they continue “working on some other things that we don’t really want to talk about.” It was on the same episode of the show that Adams said he was “not standing in the way” of the Trump administration’s immigration plans but “collaborating.”
Only time will tell if Adams’ next run as Mayor in 2025 would be fruitful as aside from turning his back on communities who voted him into office, court proceedings on his federal indictment case remain pending.
Last week, Mayor Adams withdrew from a 2025 mayoral candidate forum, citing legal advice to avoid such events until a judge rules on whether to dismiss his federal corruption indictment, AP News reported.
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“Let’s allow the court to do this process,” Adams said, adding that there would be ample time for debates and public forums later in the campaign.
In court filings Wednesday, Adams’ lawyers accused prosecutors of misconduct, arguing that the government improperly leaked a letter from then-U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to Attorney General Pam Bondi, detailing why the charges should not be dropped. They claimed the leak undermined Adams’ right to a fair trial.
Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, and Alex Spiro, the mayor’s attorney, have also argued that the indictment revoked Adams’ security clearance, preventing him from fully participating in a federal immigration task force. Bove further argued that the charges were disrupting the mayoral race—a claim which directly contradicts Adams’ repeated insistence that his criminal case has not impacted his ability to lead the nation’s largest city.
Corrections March 6, 2025: A previous version of this story contained errors in the subheads. The quote from Mayor Eric Adams has been corrected to: “This issue will destroy the city.” We changed “shut” to “alter” to better reflect Adams’ stance on sanctuary law. Also, “contact” ICE has been corrected to “allow ICE to enter worksite.” The article now also includes additional context from an NPR interview with Adams where he affirmed his stance on the Constitution, saying: “This is a city that’s open to all, and everyone has a right to the protections of the Constitution.” We apologize for the errors.
