New York City is set to bar ICE from operating at any of its 19 correction facilities — including Rikers Island.
The Safer Sanctuary Act, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to sign into law in the coming days, significantly expands limits on city officials’ collaboration with federal agents during immigration crackdowns. Currently, sanctuary city status only focuses on cooperation with ICE.
Mamdani is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days. James Messerschmidt for the NY Post
The bill, introduced by socialist Astoria Councilmember Tiffany Caban last year, passed the City Council in December, but was vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams on his final day in office.
Adams tried to re-open an ICE office on Rikers through a controversial executive order but was shot down in September by a Manhattan judge, who ruled he was only doing so to curry favors with the Trump administration after it dropped criminal charges against him.
The City Council voted 44 to 7 to override Adams’s veto Thursday, setting the Big Apple up for a showdown with the Trump Administration.
The Democratic Socialists of America, who orchestrated with Caban to craft and introduce the bill, celebrated during a member meeting that evening.
The bill will ban federal agents from working at city court jails and all other NYC DOC facilities. REUTERS
The bill significantly expands limits on city officials’ collaboration with federal agents during immigration crackdowns Getty Images
“We’re super excited,” boasted a DSA leader who only introduced herself as Rachel, who said she worked with Caban and NABE? Councilmember Alexa Aviles to set their “legislative priorities.”
“What it does is respond to the current way that Trump is weaponizing ICE,” she said.
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“It’s not just collaborating with ICE that is off the table for city agencies, but it’s collaborating with any of the federal agencies that Trump is kind of deputizing and weaponizing to do immigration enforcement,” she said, referring to the raid last year that saw the FBI and other federal agencies descend on Canal Street to crack down on illegal street vendors and migrants.
This comes the same week as Gov. Kathy Hochul proposing a state version of the bill Friday that aims to end existing agreements between local and federal law enforcement.