NEW YORK, CMC – Caribbean immigration advocates on Wednesday strongly condemned New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams’s look earlier than america Congressional Committee on Oversight amid heightened requires his resignation over reported collusion with President Donald J. Trump over mass deportations.
Adams and three different mayors of “sanctuary cities”—Chicago, Boston, and Denver—testified earlier than the Committee.
“In at present’s Congressional listening to on sanctuary cities, we noticed additional proof that Eric Adams is unfit to guide New York Metropolis,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella group that represents over 200 immigrant advocacy teams in New York, instructed the Caribbean Media Company (CMC).
“Even on this sham listening to – which was largely a chance for extremist MAGA Republicans to spew hate and distortions about immigration – the mayor’s capacity to guide town was repeatedly questioned,” he added. “We didn’t anticipate to be taught a lot from this spectacle, however as Congress members questioned Eric Adams, we hardly ever bought previous the controversy of whether or not he entered a quid professional quo settlement with the Trump administration.
“As a substitute of going to bat for all New Yorkers, Adams as soon as once more stood up for himself and himself alone,” Awawdeh continued. “We commend the Mayors of Boston, Chicago, and Denver for standing up for his or her metropolis’s residents and selling sanctuary insurance policies that guarantee public security for all.”
Natalia Aristizabal of Make the Highway Motion, one other immigrant advocacy group in New York, mentioned: “Again and again, Mayor Adams has proven that he’s extra eager about cozying as much as the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda than defending everybody in New York Metropolis.
“As a substitute of exhibiting management and standing up for our immigrant communities, the mayor is promoting out immigrant households to salvage his political profession,” she instructed CMC. “Throughout at present’s listening to, Mayor Adams—in stark distinction to the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and Denver—refused to face up for New York Metropolis’s legal guidelines and communities.
“Whereas anti-immigrant politicians attacked immigrants, Mayor Adams appeared very happy to amplify their falsehoods and scapegoat our neighbors,” Aristizabal added. “The mayor pointed to the price of welcoming new New Yorkers as a burden to taxpayers, ignoring that his administration authorised thousands and thousands of {dollars} in spending to contractors who have been unqualified and gouging town. He’s searching for to shift the blame for his fiscal mismanagement.
“It’s clear that Mayor Adams’s authorized case and settlement with the Trump administration makes him unfit to function mayor of New York Metropolis,” she continued. “Because of this we’re pushing for New York for All—a statewide regulation limiting collaboration between native regulation enforcement and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Company). We can’t belief native politicians who save their skins by betraying our communities.”
Adams testified to the Congressional Oversight Committee: “Federal regulation didn’t permit me to cease buses from coming into New York Metropolis. State regulation required me to supply our metropolis with housing and meals and educate youngsters. Metropolis regulation makes it illegal to collaborate with ICE for civil enforcement.
“We complied with all of those authorized necessities and nonetheless managed the humanitarian disaster with care and compassion whereas on the similar time bringing down crime, recovering our financial system, and stopping any little one from being pressured to sleep on the streets,” added the mayor, stating that “complete immigration reform is lengthy overdue.
“Whereas the answer isn’t inside my management, as a mayor, I’m dedicated to working with federal officers — irrespective of who’s president — to go after violent gangs and people who hurt residents of our metropolis,” he continued. “That’s the reason now we have over 330 NYPD (New York Police Division) officers assigned to completely different federal joint activity forces — over 70 of that are assigned to activity forces with Homeland Safety Investigations, the felony investigations arm of ICE.”
Adams mentioned these activity forces concentrate on “many alternative very important priorities, together with going after violent gangs and little one exploitation.
“I sit up for sharing how New York Metropolis collaborates day by day with our metropolis, state, and federal companions to maintain our metropolis protected,” he mentioned.
As calls intensify for the mayor to step down, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul final month proposed new actions to revive public belief within the metropolis’s authorities.
Hochul introduced sweeping enlargement of state oversight and new guardrails to make sure what she described as “accountability” and the safety of New Yorkers.
Nonetheless, the governor famous that these actions would require legislative motion and take impact instantly upon passage.
Nonetheless, Awawdeh mentioned that “New York Metropolis, below Mayor Eric Adams, is beholden to Donald Trump’s calls for.
“No new checks that New York State may impose on New York Metropolis will repair that problem,” he instructed CMC. “Eric Adams bought out New Yorkers to keep away from prosecution for corruption costs in a quid professional quo take care of the Trump administration, plain and easy.
“Now, he’s working with the Trump administration to separate households in New York Metropolis in direct violation of our native sanctuary insurance policies,” Awawdeh added. “All New Yorkers will face actual and dire penalties from Gov. Hochul’s refusal to carry the mayor accountable for his actions.
“The individuals is not going to stay silent within the face of the risk posed by Eric Adams to immigrant New Yorkers,” he mentioned.
