The Adams administration’s transfer to place federal immigration authorities on Rikers Island is on pause, with a decide ruling the administration can’t take any steps in direction of a proper settlement till a court docket listening to later this week.
This non permanent restraining order delays the feds from shifting onto the island a minimum of 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 prime deputy Randy Mastro earlier this month, was meant to convey Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers, in addition to different federal companies, into the jail complicated.
The Metropolis Council sued over the transfer final week.
An indication denouncing Mayor Eric Adams is pictured at a press convention to denounce the mayor’s choice 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 town handed sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines. Town 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 grew to become first deputy earlier this month, has been empowered to take level on drafting the memo with ICE, sources aware of the matter stated Monday.
Whereas sometimes, a number of groups at Metropolis Corridor or from different companies is likely to be concerned in a problem with coverage overlap between immigration and public security, the work on the manager order and memorandum of understanding has been largely confined to Mastro’s workforce at Metropolis Corridor.
That is per 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 prime officers in Adams’ administration indicated that they had been stored out of the loop on the difficulty 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 midnight on the order.
The manager order got here weeks after the mayor initially advised border czar Tom Homan that he’d convey the authorities onto Rikers.
Rosado was additionally the decide within the Adams administration’s $700 million lawsuit towards Texas bus corporations that introduced migrants up from the southern border. She dismissed that swimsuit, writing the case was primarily based on an “antiquated” and “unconstitutional” regulation.
Initially Revealed: April 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM EDT
