The Adams administration’s transfer to place federal immigration authorities on Rikers Island is on pause, with a choose ruling Monday that the administration can’t take any steps in the direction of a proper settlement till a courtroom listening to later this week.
The short-term restraining order delays the feds from transferring onto the island no less than till a Friday listening to, a pause agreed to by Mayor Adams. The ruling additionally blocks the administration from negotiating an settlement, or memorandum of understanding, till then.
The mayor’s govt order, signed by his high deputy Randy Mastro earlier this month, was supposed to carry Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers, in addition to different federal companies, into the jail advanced.
The Metropolis Council sued over the transfer final week, alleging Adams is searching for to let ICE function on Rikers to satisfy his finish of a “corrupt” discount with President Trump’s administration that resulted within the mayor’s federal indictment being dropped this month.
An indication denouncing Mayor Eric Adams is pictured at a press convention to denounce the mayor’s resolution to permit ICE brokers on Rikers Island on April 10, 2025 in Manhattan. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
“City Hall and all other New York City government officials, officers, personnel, and agencies are prohibited from taking any steps toward negotiating, signing, or implementing any Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government regarding federal law enforcement presence on Department of Correction property,” Manhattan Supreme Justice Mary Rosado wrote in her order.
“We are grateful that the court agreed with us to delay the hearing until April 25. As we committed to the court last week, we are not executing an MOU prior to the hearing,” Kayla Mamelak, the mayor’s press secretary, stated in a press release.
ICE beforehand had a Rikers workplace, till 2014, when the town strengthened native sanctuary legal guidelines to bar federal immigration brokers from the island. Adams’ administration says its plan is to permit felony, however not civil enforcement, when ICE returns to Rikers.
“We appreciate Judge Rosado’s decision to prevent any negotiation or execution on an agreement between the administration and federal agencies until this Friday’s hearing to ensure communities are protected,” Julia Agos, a spokesperson for Speaker Adrienne Adams, stated in a press release.
“We look forward to the hearing and will continue outlining why this executive order is unlawful and bad for public safety in our city.”
Mastro, a controversial Giuliani administration alum who turned first deputy earlier this month, has been empowered to take level on drafting the memo with ICE, sources acquainted with the matter stated Monday.
Whereas a number of groups at Metropolis Corridor or from different companies may sometimes be concerned in a difficulty with coverage overlap between immigration and public security, the work on the ICE-related govt order and memorandum of understanding has been largely confined to Mastro’s workforce at Metropolis Corridor.
That is according to the mayor’s transfer to delegate the work on the order to Mastro, Mamelak stated.
The doorway to Rikers Island in Queens. (Barry Williams for New York Day by day Information)
Earlier than Mastro issued the long-awaited govt order this month, different high officers in Adams’ administration indicated that they had been stored out of the loop on the problem of letting ICE function on the island. The commissioner of the Mayor’s Workplace of Immigrant Affairs testified in early March that his workplace had been stored at the hours of darkness on the order.
The chief order got here weeks after the mayor initially informed Trump border czar Tom Homan that he’d carry the authorities onto Rikers.
Rosado was additionally the choose within the Adams administration’s $700 million lawsuit in opposition to Texas bus firms that introduced migrants up from the southern border. She dismissed that go well with, writing the case was based mostly on an “antiquated” and “unconstitutional” regulation.
Initially Revealed: April 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM EDT
