By Jacob Kaye
About a month after a judge ruled that the Adams administration’s efforts to allow federal immigration agents to open up an office on Rikers Island were illegal, a Queens lawmaker introduced a bill to ensure similar mayoral orders never come again.
The new bill from City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán would explicitly bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from operating an office on any land owned by the city’s Department of Correction, including Rikers Island.
The legislation, which already has support from over half of the Council, would also supersede any conflicting mayoral executive order or memorandum of understanding the city entered into with ICE.
Cabán’s legislation comes around a month after a Manhattan judge found that an executive order issued by Mayor Eric Adams’ first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, was illegal.
The Adams administration appealed the judge’s ruling on Sept. 23.
As the case makes its way through the courts, Cabán and her colleagues, who together sued the mayor over the executive order, appear not to be taking any chances when it comes to keeping ICE from conducting criminal investigations on Rikers Island.
“New Yorkers already disappear inside [Rikers’] walls. It cannot also become a deportation machine,” Cabán said in a statement.
“That’s why I’m introducing legislation to keep ICE and federal agents from targeting immigrants, undermining our sanctuary city policies, and setting up offices in NYC jails,” she added. “New York City must not cooperate with these modern-day masked storm troopers who terrorize our communities.”
“We cannot allow their viciousness to take root inside our own facilities, with our city’s blessing,” she added.
The legislation drew support from 25 councilmembers who signed on as co-sponsors, including three from Queens.
The bill is the latest jab in a series of back-and-forths between the Council and the mayor over ICE’s presence within the city’s crumbling jail complex.
The battle began in April, when Adams tapped Mastro to issue the executive order.
The mayor claimed that he kept his name off the order in an effort to stave off any conflict of interest accusations. Only a week before the order was issued, federal prosecutors dropped the corruption charges brought against Adams last year after the mayor allegedly agreed to help the Trump administration with their immigration enforcement efforts in New York City.
Despite his attempt to distance himself from the order, Adams was immediately accused of selling out the city to help Trump.
The City Council sued the mayor over the order, claiming the mayor of violated the city’s charter by “using his ‘position as a public servant’ to obtain…‘private or personal advantage.’”
After several months of litigation, New York Supreme Court Justice Mary Rosado said that she agreed. Rosado said in her ruling that the order had the “impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest.”
“The argument that the conflict was cleansed by delegating to First Deputy Mayor Mastro is farcical,” the judge’s ruling read. “First Deputy Mayor Mastro is not independent of Mayor Adams and he was appointed and delegated the specific task of issuing Executive Order 50 after Mayor Adams made it publicly known his desired outcome.”
Adams appealed the decision last month.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Cabán’s bill on Friday.
In addition to half the Council, the bill also received support from Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Comptroller Brad Lander and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.