Mayor Adams vetoed a Metropolis Council invoice late Wednesday that will decriminalize unlicensed road merchandising within the 5 boroughs, teeing up a probable override battle with the chamber’s Democratic members, who accused the mayor of taking part in into President Trump’s immigration agenda.
The invoice, which handed the Council in a veto-proof 40-8 vote in June, would scrap the felony penalties distributors at present face in the event that they promote meals or merchandise on the streets with no metropolis government-issued license.
Many road distributors within the metropolis are immigrants. Persevering with to face felony penalties for unlicensed merchandising may make them simpler targets for Trump’s administration, which has pursued an aggressive crackdown in New York that includes masked ICE brokers detaining noncitizens for potential deportation.
Underneath the Council invoice, unlicensed merchandising would as a substitute be topic to civil penalties — a modification Council Democrats argue wouldn’t put immigrant distributors vulnerable to deportation or different penalties, like issue acquiring authorized standing, housing or employment.
However in asserting his veto of the invoice, the mayor countered in an announcement Thursday that the measure posed a public security threat.
“We cannot be so idealistic that we’re not realistic — preventing the brave men and women of the NYPD from intervening, even in the most egregious cases, is unfair to law-abiding business owners and poses real public health and safety risks,” Adams’ assertion stated, including he used his veto pen to face up “for the New Yorkers who follow the rules and the dedicated officers who continue to keep us safe.”
Julia Agos, a rep for Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, stated the chamber’s Democrats have been caught off guard by the veto, because the invoice got here out of discussions between members of town’s Avenue Vendor Advisory Board, which incorporates NYPD officers and different Adams administration reps.
“The Council negotiated this bill in good faith with the administration, only to have the mayor disregard the work of the advisory board and his own staff with this veto,” Agos stated.
Mayor Eric Adams. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
Adams spokesman Zachary Nosanchuk disputed Agos’ recollection, saying the mayor’s workforce all through negotiations maintained that felony penalties want to remain in place.
Towards the backdrop of ICE enforcement efforts within the metropolis, Agos stated the mayor — who has confronted accusations of being beholden to Trump for the reason that Justice Division dismissed his corruption indictment — is doing the president a favor by vetoing the laws.
“As the Trump administration continues to attack working families and immigrant communities, Mayor Adams’ veto is yet another example of him supporting Trump’s agenda over New Yorkers,” she stated.
In keeping with the newest metropolis information, the NYPD issued greater than 1,200 felony merchandising tickets in 2023, an virtually three-fold enhance in contrast with 2022. Distributors who’re Black or Latino are disproportionately impacted, receiving almost 80% of all of the felony tickets issued in 2023, whereas making up simply 50% of town’s general inhabitants, the info present.
“By vetoing … the mayor is actively putting more New Yorkers at greater risk — harming their ability to potentially access educational and housing opportunities and subjecting them to more potential avenues of attack from Donald Trump and ICE,” stated Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.
The mayor’s bid to dam the road merchandising invoice comes after he additionally on Wednesday vetoed the Council’s resolution to dam Bally’s from constructing a on line casino within the Bronx. The Council is mulling overriding that veto, too.
Earlier than this week, the mayor had already in his first time period vetoed three different Council legislative packages, together with a measure putting extra reporting necessities on NYPD officers. In every of these instances, the Council overrode his vetoes.
Initially Revealed: July 31, 2025 at 12:05 PM EDT
