Trump border czar meeting with NYC Mayor Adams despite sanctuary city status

Incoming border czar Tom Homan will meet with New York City Mayor Eric Adams in the Big Apple on Thursday where they will discuss the city’s ongoing migrant crisis and ways of deporting criminal illegal migrants who have been terrorizing the city’s streets.

The pair is scheduled to meet at City Hall at 1 p.m. and then hold a press conference at 3 p.m., according to the mayor’s office. 

The main focus of the meeting is to weed out migrant criminals in the sanctuary city and deport them, as opposed to those who are undocumented, a source familiar with the matter tells the New York Post. 

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Homan, a hardliner on immigration, has vowed to enforce Trump’s promised crackdown on illegal immigration and carry out his mass deportation agenda. Homan has said he wants to primarily deport those migrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety. 

Adams has at times been critical of the federal government, including the Biden Administration, for its lack of financial support over the last four years as New York City has struggled to cater for the unprecedented influx of migrants -- costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The blue city has seen more than 225,000 migrants arrive since 2022, a surge that coincided with a spike in migrant crime in the city with the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua getting a foothold in the city. 

Migrant arrivals have dropped sharply in recent weeks, with Adams attributing the dip to executive orders by the Biden administration that have limited the ability to claim asylum in the U.S. and have been tied to a sharp drop in apprehensions at the border itself. He also linked it to strategies taken by the city itself to help relocate migrants, including case management and offering tickets to 47,000 migrants so they can reach their "preferred destinations." 

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding to sanctuary cities who do not cooperate with Trump’s deportation agenda. 

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The city’s sanctuary city status stems from a 1979 class action suit brought against then-Gov. Hugh L. Carey and Mayor Ed Koch that resulted in the "Callahan Decree" – which instituted a right-to-shelter for homeless men. It has since been used as a tool to attempt to shelter homeless migrants who have descended on the city. Adams has previously criticized it being applied to migrants. 

Adams has been taking a more hawkish approach to illegal immigration in recent weeks, announcing that 25 shelters are in the city and state are being closed in the next few months. He has also suggested that immigrants charged with crimes do not necessarily deserve due process.

"We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close, and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response," Adams said on Tuesday.

Adams has taken a more muscular approach to illegal immigration than some of his Democratic counterparts in other blue cities across the country, some of whom have promised resistance to the plan by the incoming Trump administration.

He has indicated his willingness to work with Homan on the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions while stressing the importance of work authorization, case management and protection from deportation for those who have not committed violent crimes while here.

"I would like to speak with our border czar and find out what his plans are. Where our common grounds are, we can work together. And I strongly believe, my history is sitting down with those across the aisle with different ways of thinking and sit down and share my ideas," Adams said last week. 

"I believe I have some ideas that could deal with this issue, and we can reach what the American people have been saying to us: secure our borders, address the people who are committing violent acts in our country and make sure that … our citizens are going to be safe."

Adams apparent shift to the right even left some speculating that Adams may rejoin the Republican Party, a prospect he didn’t rule out last week. 

Meanwhile, voters in the state of New York support the deportation of illegal immigrants, according to a new poll. The Siena College New York State Poll found that 54% of respondents say the state should support any Trump administration efforts to deport migrants living illegally in the state, compared to 35% of respondents who oppose the plans.

Strong support for President-elect Trump's deportation plan was found throughout the state, including New York City.

Fox News' Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.