Attorneys for Mayor Adams are interesting a courtroom choice that’s quickly blocking his administration from taking any steps to let federal immigration authorities function on Rikers Island.
In papers filed Monday with the appellate division of Manhattan Supreme Court docket, attorneys representing Adams, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and town Division of Correction requested for the expunging of a brief restraining order stopping the administration from taking any steps to let ICE brokers on Rikers at the least by means of a Could 29 listening to.
The April 25 restraining order, which additionally prohibits the administration from partaking in negotiations with the feds about letting them on Rikers, was issued by Manhattan Supreme Court docket Choose Mary Rosado in response to a lawsuit introduced by the Metropolis Council.
AP Picture/Seth Wenig
The Rikers Island jail complaex in New York Metropolis. (AP Picture/Seth Wenig)
The go well with alleges the Adams administration’s government order to permit ICE on Rikers is the “poisonous fruit” of a “corrupt” deal the mayor entered into with President Trump whereby the mayor’s federal corruption indictment was dropped in alternate for a dedication to help in Trump’s effort to focused undocumented New Yorkers for “mass deportations.”
Based on the Council’s go well with, the order violated native ethics regulation that bar metropolis officers from taking official actions to learn themselves. On a extra technical word, the go well with additionally expenses the order itself isn’t legitimate as a result of it was signed by Mastro as a substitute of the mayor.
The Monday submitting from the attorneys representing Mastro and Adams dismissed the Council’s technical argument, alleging the order “complies with the city administrative code.”
The attorneys additionally wrote within the courtroom papers that the Council’s attorneys “unequivocally failed to demonstrate the imminent, concrete harm” that will warrant the kind of momentary restraining order issued by Rosado.
Randy Mastro is pictured at New York Metropolis Corridor on April 1, 2025. (Michael Appleton / Mayoral Pictures Workplace)
Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t instantly return requests for touch upon the submitting. Reps for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who’s spearheading the lawsuit, didn’t instantly return messages searching for remark, both.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers used to take care of an workplace on Rikers the place they coordinated deportation actions till 2014, when town strengthened native sanctuary legal guidelines to bar the feds from the island. The overwhelming majority of inmates held on Rikers are awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of any crimes.
Critics of the mayor worry his administration’s push to let ICE again on Rikers will lead to immigrant New Yorkers accused of minor offenses being swept up in Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown. They’ve pointed specifically to the Trump administration’s willingness to bend the principles, and even outright defy courtroom orders, as a part of its aggressive efforts to focus on undocumented immigrants for deportations.
Mastro and Adams’ workplace have countered that the chief order would solely enable the feds to interact in prison enforcement on the island, versus civil deportation proceedings. Mastro has mentioned there can be “consequences” if ICE engaged in civil enforcement anyway, although he hasn’t detailed what these may be.
Initially Printed: Could 5, 2025 at 4:55 PM EDT
