NYC remains a sanctuary city as nothing has changed despite Mayor Adams floating policy rollback, officials say

Adams administration officials insisted Thursday that sanctuary city laws are still being followed — telling lawmakers that “nothing has changed” despite Mayor Eric Adams’ floating a potential rollback of the migrant-friendly policies.“No sanctuary laws and policies have changed,” Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro assured members of the City Council during a hearing.“In our communities there is going to be a great amount of debate, perhaps even confusion, misinformation and so on,” Castro said.

“But we want to make sure that people know that no sanctuary city policies have changed and the direction to city agencies and offices continues to be that we follow our sanctuary city laws and policies.”Councilmember Alexa Avilés, chair of the Committee on Immigration, accused Adams of sowing the “confusion” about the 40-year-old policies.“What is clear is there is an awful lot of confusion about what to do which has been precipitated by the executive,” Avilés said.“The problem seems to be with the mayor who does not understand.”Castro assured Avilés his office has not proposed any changes to the city’s sanctuary laws.Adams has repeatedly suggested the city should change its longstanding sanctuary policies to increase cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).The mayor dared progressives to “cancel” him in December when he announced he supported deporting migrants from New York City who have been charged with crimes — a shift from his past stance of waiting for convictions before shipping off immigrant criminals.Hizzoner appeared with President Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Fox and Friends last month promising he would reopen the ICE office on Rikers Island and allow city officials to collaborate with ICE on civil enforcement. But under questioning from council members, immigration officials in the mayor’s office said they had never seen any executive order draf...