Adams: My ‘Goal Is Not to Deport Someone Who Breaks the Law’ if It’s Non-Violent Like Stealing

During an interview with 1010 WINS on Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) discussed changing the city’s sanctuary city laws and stated that “the goal is not to deport someone who breaks the law. You just take an apple off an apple stand. That’s breaking the law, no one is calling for them to be deported.”

Adams said, “I want to be clear that the goal is not to deport someone who breaks the law. You just take an apple off an apple stand. That’s breaking the law, no one is calling for them to be deported. I am talking about violent, repeated offenders. Our job is to apprehend them, the prosecutor’s job is to prosecute. And I believe the federal government’s job is to deport them after they serve their time here, because if you don’t have them serve their time, they go back out and do the crimes again. It doesn’t matter if you’re a migrant or asylum seeker or you’re long term New Yorkers, you should not victimize, violently, New Yorkers in this city. And I stand by that, and we’re going to look at what authority we have to do anything to look at those dangerous individuals who are really harming also migrants and asylum seekers. The overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers that are here are trying to take that next step on the journey in America, but there’s a small number that are violent, and I don’t believe they should have the right to stay in our city after they serve their time.”

Adams added that his team is looking at what power he has to get “violent people off the streets.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.