Editor’s note: Why Adams should defend sanctuary city laws

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has long managed to avoid completely siding with President Donald Trump’s opposition to New York City’s sanctuary city laws. It may have been easy for Adams to brush them off as a set of legal protections for undocumented immigrants passed by the City Council. But he did accept them, even though for months Adams has argued the laws should be changed to allow for cooperation with federal authorities seeking individuals accused of “serious crimes.” On July 24, he learned he can’t have it both ways. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit charging that the city’s lack of cooperation with federal officials carrying out immigration enforcement was “intentional sabotage” and unconstitutional. Adams, on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” stood his ground on wanting to change the laws, but deferred to the city’s lawyers on the lawsuit. “It is up to the (corporation) counsel to handle the case,” he said.

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, a nonprofit umbrella policy and advocacy group representing more than 200 immigrant and refugee rights organizations across the state, called the lawsuit frivolous and insisted Adams should personally defend the sanctuary city laws. “Every mayor since the ’80s has had sanctuary policies on the books. Sanctuary policies keep our city safe,” Awawdeh told City & State. “This notion that sanctuary policies make cities or localities lawless is just straight up hogwash.”

That’s a message that should resonate with the safety-minded Adams. Even conservative Mayor Rudy Giuliani enforced the left-leaning city sanctuary laws during his tenure. “He understood that our sanctuary policies were public safety measures,” Awawdeh said. “And they continue to be public safety measures.”