Adams Admin Seeks to Calm Deportation Fears of Trump Presidency

 

The president elect has promised mass deportations, but New York is still a sanctuary city and officials said they don’t want to stir anxieties 

This article originally appeared in The City.

By Katie Honan

NEW YORK - A subdued Mayor Eric Adams tried to reassure New Yorkers Wednesday, in the wake of former President Donald Trump election night win, urging protection for the city’s undocumented immigrants while not offering many details amid threats of mass deportation.

“I want to congratulate President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance and wish them all the best as they work to promote the interests of all of the people,” Adams said at a press conference. 

“Our main team will work with the coming administration for the good of all New Yorkers.” He added that, as the nation’s largest city, he would work with the mayors of other cities to come up with a “real agenda.” 

Adams was flanked by his deputy mayors and other top staffers, including officials from the NYPD including Commissioner Thomas Donlon. The mayor said he supported peaceful protests over the election outcome but warned against any violence or major disruptions. 

First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer said the administration looked at key issues for the city following Trump’s 2016 election, including infrastructure spending and the budget. Around $7 billion of the city’s more than $112 billion budget came from federal grants this year, she said. 

But the major focus was on the city’s undocumented immigrants, as Trump has promised to use agencies across the federal government, including the military, to deport people en masse — and apply pressure to “sanctuary” cities like New York. 

Manny Castro, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of immigrant Affairs, said he spoke early Wednesday with the schools chancellor to figure out ways to reassure immigrant students and their families.

But he noted the administration will “wait to see” what happens in a Trump presidency. He said the focus would be on informing immigrants of their rights, but offered few details on whether City Hall would cooperate with Trump’s deportation plans. 

“We cannot add to the anxiety and fear that people are experiencing,” he said as he deflected questions. 

Adams, who has called himself the “Biden of Brooklyn,” grew reluctant to criticize former Trump in recent months and also was hesitant to say Vice President Kamala Harris’ name, saying Monday it could be seen as “electioneering.” 

“I have to be extremely careful. Everything I do is critiqued highly, and I have to be careful. And if I'm doing electioneering here at this podium, you're going to write a story on me,” he said. 

On Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul took a more aggressive stance against the president-elect, standing next to Attorney General Leticia James and announcing the Empire State Freedom Initiative, “focused on key areas that are most likely to face the greatest threat from the Trump administration.”

And while she said she’d work with the Trump administration, she warned him that ‘if  you try to harm New Yorkers  or roll back their rights, I will fight you every step of the way.

“New Yorkers are resilient, we fought the first time around and we’ll fight again,” she said.

Before voting Tuesday at his home site in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Adams said he planned to cast his ballot for “VP Harris.” He later said he planned to watch the election results with his son, Jordan Coleman.

He said he planned to speak with the president-elect on Wednesday to offer his congratulations. 

Beyond the presidential election, Adams won big with four of his five ballot proposals passing. He did not speak about that victory at the media briefing, which will give his office more control over some bills passed in the City Council.

Earlier in the day he’d released a statement calling the proposals’ win “a great day for everyone who desires a safer city, cleaner streets, greater fiscal responsibility, transparency in the city’s capital planning process, and, of course, access to abortion care.”

Adams also declined to answer a question by THE CITY if a new president could help his federal corruption case. 

At his Madison Square Garden rally last month, Trump said of Adams: “He’s been really great, and he said that they shouldn’t be calling Trump a dictator because it's not true that’s nice. We want to thank Mayor Adams. He’s going through a hard time with these people.” 

Trump himself is set to be sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 26 for his hush-money case conviction.

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