A New York decide has ordered metropolis officers to quickly halt a plan permitting federal immigration brokers to function inside the Rikers Island jail complicated forward of a listening to later this week.
In a written order Monday, Decide Mary Rosado barred the town from “taking any steps towards negotiating, signing, or implementing any Memorandum of Understanding with the federal authorities” earlier than an April 25 listening to in a swimsuit difficult the plan.
That listening to will give attention to a lawsuit introduced final week by the New York Metropolis Council in opposition to Mayor Eric Adams that seeks to dam his current government order allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and different federal companies to keep up workplace house on the jail complicated.
The swimsuit accuses Adams, a Democrat, of coming into right into a “corrupt quid professional quo cut price” with the Trump administration in alternate for the Justice Division dropping felony prices in opposition to him.
Adams has repeatedly denied making any cope with the administration over the felony case. He has mentioned the presence of ICE and different federal companies inside the jail complicated will permit them to help in gang and drug-related investigations however that they’d don’t have any function in civil immigration enforcement.
A spokesperson for Adams mentioned the town wouldn’t execute any settlement with the Trump administration forward of the listening to.
Adams beforehand introduced he would deputize his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, to deal with all decision-making on the return of ICE to Rikers Island so as to “guarantee there was by no means even the looks of any battle.”
Mastro mentioned final week that discussions with the federal authorities over the plan have been ongoing.
ICE brokers beforehand had a presence on the Rikers Island facility, which is on a hard-to-reach island within the East River. However they have been successfully banned from working there in 2014 below New York Metropolis’s sanctuary legal guidelines limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement.
“The Council stands agency in our efforts to guard the rights and security of all New Yorkers in opposition to assaults by the Trump administration and its brokers,” mentioned Julia Agos, a spokesperson for Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who’s operating for mayor. “We admire Decide Rosado’s determination to forestall any negotiation or execution on an settlement between the administration and federal companies till this Friday’s listening to to make sure communities are protected.”
Offenhartz writes for the Related Press.
