Mayor Adams on Tuesday echoed Trump administration speaking factors on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident whose unintended deportation to El Salvador has turn into a serious flashpoint within the ongoing battle over the president’s hardline immigration agenda.
Adams’ feedback, made alongside Trump border Czar Tom Homan, got here because the NYPD and the FBI introduced the arrests of greater than two dozen Venezuelan immigrants linked to the Tren de Aragua avenue gang. The mayor spoke about Abrego Garcia’s case with out truly naming him, accusing him of being a gang member.
President Donald Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan speaks at a press convention discussing federal expenses in opposition to Tren de Aragua members Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
“I won’t have a tequila drink with a gang member,” Adams mentioned. “I won’t be hanging out with them and hugging them, acting like they are victims. They are not victims. They create victims by their actions.”
The Trump administration’s characterization of Abrego Garcia is a contentious concern. The White Home beforehand admitted in court docket papers that he had been deported as an “administrative error” however has, extra lately shifted the narrative, urgent the competition he was a harmful member of MS-13, a gang that was lately designated a terrorist group by Trump.
A federal decide has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return and to offer proof of the actions it has taken to get him again. The Supreme Courtroom has largely upheld that ruling.
In his Tuesday feedback about ingesting tequila, the mayor seemed to be referring to an incident final week that Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen has mentioned was a phony setup manufactured by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, the place he’s been detained, they usually had been photographed with drinks that seemed to be margaritas. Van Hollen mentioned these drinks had been positioned on the desk by a Bukele aide, and that neither man drank them.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” Bukele wrote on social media after the assembly.
Garcia has not been convicted of any prison offenses and denies any gang ties.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (AP)
Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for the mayor, mentioned Adams believes in due course of and that the case will play out within the courts exterior of New York. She famous the mayor by no means particularly named Abrego Garcia.
Earlier within the day Tuesday, at his weekly press convention, the mayor addressed the identical concern.
“We have dangerous gangs in our city, and I would not be sipping drinks with them,” Adams mentioned. “I would not turn them into heroes. I would not be sharing a Tito’s and seltzer with them.”
Adams’ feedback come amid rising scrutiny of his ties with the Trump White Home. He’s been accused of coming into right into a corrupt cope with the Trump administration, serving to the president’s immigration agenda in trade for his federal corruption case getting dropped. Adams denies any quid professional quo.
“Once again, Mayor Adams made clear that he believes in due process only when it benefits himself,” Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition mentioned in a press release. “By co-signing the disappearance of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — a father and husband — to Bukele’s notorious CECOT torture camp, Adams has aligned himself with the same authoritarian tactics Trump used to vanish New Yorkers to El Salvador. Instead of standing up for the rights of all New Yorkers, the Mayor repeats fiction and nonsense.”
The mayor’s Tuesday feedback mark a shift from final week, when he sidestepped questions by CNN’s Dana Bash on whether or not he was snug how the Trump administration deporting folks, particularly Abrego Garcia.
“Well, you know, one thing I’m clear on is that I’m not a hypocrite,” Adams replied. “I’ve been very clear on my policies. And if we look at the wording in communications, I stated pre-Trump, the President Trump being elected, it’s the same, there’s consistency… I don’t control immigration. It’s a federal issue.”
