Fear grows among NYC migrants as Mayor Adams vows to work with Trump on immigration issues

Donald Trump’s presidential election victory left immigrants in New York City on edge Wednesday as they fear what will come of his pledge to launch “mass deportations” once he takes office early next year.
In an afternoon briefing at City Hall, Mayor Adams did little to allay those fears, as he pledged to work with Trump on immigration issues and said his engagement with the incoming president’s team will be about developing “a realistic and compassionate” strategy on the federal level.
Adams wouldn’t offer any details on what that will look like or specify any new actions his administration will take to protect the more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in New York City. Additionally, Adams declined to say whether his administration will cooperate in any “mass deportation” proceedings launched by the federal government once the next president is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Speaking in Spanish, Manuel Castro, Adams’ immigrant affairs commissioner, who used to be undocumented and gained legal status in the U.S. thanks to former President Barack Obama’s “Dreamer” program, said later that the city will not “be following the instructions of the federal government in cases of mass deportations.”
But Castro acknowledged Adams’ team has nothing in the pipeline to counteract Trump’s deportation effort besides trying to talk his incoming administration out of it.
“We will hopefully educate the administration and everyone who will hear us how this is resource-heavy — putting people in camps, rounding them up in mass deportations — it will impact local economies, not just New York City, and hopefully change their minds about this,” Castro told reporters.
The messaging from City Hall didn’t assuage Carla Quintana’s anxiety about what will happen once Trump returns to the White House.
Quintana, a Venezuelan migrant who lives at the city’s Roosevelt Hotel shelter in Manhattan with her husband, six kids, a son-in-law and a grandchild, said she’s terrified of the prospect of Trump trying to deport her and others in similar positions.
“That’s the fear of all of us here,” said Quintana, 39, who arrived in New York last December. “We’re mostly parents with children here. We came here to strive for their well-being, for their future.”
Repeatedly on the campaign trail, Trump said if he were reelected he would make it a Day 1 priority to launch a sweeping mass deportation effort that would involve several federal entities removing as many as 1 million immigrants from the U.S. every year, regardless of whether they’ve committed any crimes besides illegally residing in the country.
He has said the U.S. military may participate in the effort and pledged to tap centuries-old federal laws to pressure so-called sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate in the effort.
New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director Murad Awawdeh said he has heard from scores of migrants and undocumented individuals living in the city who have experienced “a real sense of fear” in the hours since Trump’s election win was called overnight Wednesday.
“Any person who has been following this election would know that Trump’s immigration platform is mass deportations, which would hurt nearly 1 million New York City residents who live in mixed-status families,” said Awawdeh. “I don’t know why the mayor would propose to work with someone who wants to harm our city and our entire way of life.”
Also Wednesday, Gov. Hochul and State Attorney General Letitia James announced an “Empire State Freedom Initiative” with a goal of developing ways to protect the rights of vulnerable populations in New York, including immigrants, following Trump’s election. James, who earlier this year secured a $450 million civil fraud judgement against Trump over his business practices in New York, said she will continue to “fight back” against him.
“I will not shrink from that responsibility … We know their playbook,” James said.
Adams on Wednesday reiterated his request for the federal government to provide expedited work permits for asylum seekers and faulted President Biden’s administration for not giving the city more aid amid an influx of tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants since spring 2022.
“Our city’s bottom line was affected when 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers were placed in the city without any federal assistance,” Adams said.
The feds have, in fact, provided more $150 million in direct migrant aid to Adams’ administration under Biden.
Adams’ relationship with Biden soured last year as he aggressively criticized the president’s handling of the migrant crisis. Trump has without evidence claimed Adams’ migrant-related criticism of Biden prompted Justice Department prosecutors to indict him in late September on corruption charges — comments the mayor hasn’t disavowed.
New York City is by law a sanctuary jurisdiction, meaning local authorities, including the NYPD, are limited in how they can cooperate with federal immigration officials.
In Wednesday’s press conference, Adams said his administration will “abide” by the sanctuary rules under Trump, but also reiterated his past argument that the laws on the books needlessly prevent the feds from providing the city with “support.”
Earlier this year, Adams specified he wants to ease the restrictions so immigrants accused of crimes — not just those convicted of them — can be turned over to federal authorities for deportation, a proposal the City Council shot down. Under Adams, employees in city law enforcement agencies have been accused of violating sanctuary law restrictions by communicating with federal immigration authorities.
Candice Braun, a migrant advocate who helps provide services for newly-arrived asylum seekers in the city, said she wishes Adams would affirm more clearly that the city’s going to comply with sanctuary rules amid Trump’s threat of mass deportations.
“I think that it would be nice for the mayor and city government to reaffirm or make some kind of public statement of sanctuary status,” said Braun. “I think that would go far.”