President-elect Donald Trump’s Border Czar, Thomas Homan, met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Thursday, discussing how the sanctuary city can work with the incoming administration to help deport criminal illegal aliens from the United States.
Adams, who recently expressed openness to working with Trump on deportations, told the New York Times that he requested the meeting with Homan.
In a statement to CBS News New York, Adams said he discussed with Homan how the mayor’s office could use its powers to aid the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deporting criminal illegal aliens.
“We’re looking at ways that I can use my executive power to go after those dangerous, violent people,” Adams told CBS News. “… I made it clear that I’m not going to be warring with his administration, I’m going to be working with his administration.”
This week, Homan told a crowd in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois, that local Democrats must not impede the incoming Trump administration from carrying out federal immigration law which requires that illegal aliens be detained while awaiting deportation.
“We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois. If your Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside,” Homan said. “But if he impedes us — if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien — I will prosecute him.”
New York City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), an opponent of the city’s sanctuary law, praised Adams for meeting with Homan:
I commend the mayor for his strong stance in declaring that New York City will not be a safe haven for criminal migrants and for directing his legal team to explore ways to ensure public safety. This is a critical step in the right direction, and as mayor, he must fully leverage his legal authority to protect New Yorkers. [Emphasis added]
Holden recently led a group of Republicans and Democrats on the New York City Council in asking Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to end all sanctuary policies in the state.
“To truly show commitment to public safety, Mayor Adams should reopen the ICE office at Rikers Island and give the NYPD, Department of Corrections, and Department of Probation the ability to communicate with ICE and honor detainers for criminal migrants,” Holden wrote to Adams.
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, New York City has been inundated with hundreds of thousands of migrants — most of whom were released directly into the U.S. interior by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Following Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the presidential election last month, Adams blasted Harris and President Joe Biden for their border policies.
“We all should be angry about what happened to this city under this administration,” Adams said in regards to the waves of illegal immigration that New York City has faced in the last four years.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
