NEW YORK, NY - Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s “border czar.” During a press briefing afterward, Adams claimed that the Biden administration’s open border policies have resulted in some 500,000 migrant children going missing, the Daily Mail reports.
Adams also dropped another bombshell when he announced he plans to use executive orders to roll back some of New York’s sanctuary city policies. Adams also promised to work with the incoming administration to facilitate Trump’s promise of mass deportations.
In speaking to the missing children, Adams said, “We have 500,000 children who have sponsors in this country that we can’t find. We can’t find them,” he said.
“We don’t know if they’re doing child labor, sex crimes, being exploited, 500,000 children."
Mayor Adams after his meeting with @TomHoman_ outraged over 500,000 missing kids in our country! How this is not bigger news, I will never understand pic.twitter.com/7dMkjzYKnY
— Red_StateRebel (@red_staterebel) December 12, 2024
“There is a level of hypocrisy for people who say they want to protect everyone. I want to support innocent children and those who are victims of crimes. Those who don’t understand that, it’s not up to me to try to convince them.”
With the Big Apple bleeding money to support the sanctuary policies, Adams has taken the occasion of Trump’s election to a second term as president to possibly scale back on those policies and to coordinate with the Trump administration on immigration.
“New York remaining a sanctuary city is determined by the city council," Adams said. "I’m going to attempt to use my executive orders to go after dangerous people committing violent acts against migrants, asylum seekers, longtime New Yorkers, and undocumented immigrants. No one should be a victim of crime in this city–particularly violent crimes.”
Adams also said illegal aliens accused of crimes should forfeit any believed right to due process, although he later appeared to walk back on those comments.
The meeting between Homan and Adams came as the mayor welcomed parts of Trump’s immigration reform plans. At a brief news conference, Adams said he and Homan agreed to pursue those who commit violent crimes in the city but did not give additional details.
“We’re not going to be a safe haven for those who commit repeated violent crimes against innocent migrants, immigrants, or longstanding New Yorkers,” he said.
“That was my conversation today with the border czar, to figure out how to go after those individuals who are repeatedly committing crimes in our city."
Adams drew fire from Democrats earlier this year when he criticized the Biden administration’s open border policies. Shortly afterward, the Department of Justice investigated him as it probed corruption in the city. Adams was ultimately charged with bribery as well as campaign finance and conspiracy offenses in September.
A couple of weeks back, Adams stunned political observers and Democrats when he refused to answer questions about whether he would consider leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican. Adams only told reporters he was part of the “American party,” later clarifying that he would remain a Democrat.
Adams, a former captain with the New York City Police Department, used to be a Republican. Considered a centrist, Adams has been embroiled in disputes with the city’s progressives. His latest shot across the bow seemed to indicate his increasing frustration with Biden’s handling of the border.
Adams claims his positions remain the same and says he is merely trying to protect New York City residents, a promise he made as part of his mayoral platform when he was elected mayor.
Adams did vow during the news conference to maintain the city’s social safety net but was anxious to rid the city of illegals who prey on the vulnerable.
“We’re going to tell those who are here, who are law-abiding, to continue to utilize the services that are open to the city, the services that they have a right to utilize, education their children, health care, public protection,” he said.
“But we will not be the safe haven for those who commit violent acts.”
Besides education, which is a mandated benefit due to a Supreme Court ruling, the city also provides healthcare and emergency shelters to low-income residents, including illegal aliens. City and state grants also provide access to lawyers, which is not guaranteed in the immigration court as they are in criminal court.
Some believe Adams’ extension of an olive branch to the Trump administration is an attempt to gain favor with the President-elect and possibly earn a pardon in his federal corruption probe.
Aside from Adams, Homan also met last week with Illinois Republicans, where he called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) to start negotiating over Trump’s mass deportation plan. Both men have publicly opposed any such efforts and said they will defy any effort by the federal government.
Nationwide, Republican governors and lawmakers in some states are in the process of putting forth proposals to help Trump and Homan carry out their pledge to deport the millions of illegal aliens living in the United States.
