Mayor Adams talks a big game about rolling back NYC’s sanctuary laws, but he refuses to direct his Charter Revision Commission to put the controversial issue on the ballot for voters to decide.
Now a group of City Council members are demanding it.
The City Council’s Common Sense Caucus fired off a letter this week to Richard Buery Jr., chairman of the Adams-appointed commission, urging him to put a referendum on the November ballot asking New Yorkers whether they support amending “sanctuary” laws to allow the NYPD to work with the feds on corraling illegal immigrants.
Former Mayor de Blasio and fellow lefties on the Council pushed through a series of left-wing policies in 2014 and 2018 that help migrant criminals avoid deportation by severely limiting the NYPD’s and city Correction and Probation departments’ ability to cooperate with the feds.
“The current sanctuary laws … are not only misguided they are dangerous,” the commission wrote Buery, a former deputy mayor under de Blasio.
The letter penned by caucus co-chairs Robert Holden (D-Queens) and Joann Ariola (R-Queens) and four other members came in response to Buery saying last week he’d “strongly oppose any effort to amend the charter to change the city’s sanctuary laws.”
Adams has said he’s committed to tweaking the laws through executive orders – including one to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate again at the Rikers Island jail complex and other city facilities.
However, critics question whether such executive orders would hold up in court. And going through the City Council isn’t an option because it’s far-left majority vehemently opposes scaling back the rules to assist ICE.
“Absent City Council cooperation, if the mayor really wants to repeal the laws that prevent us from removing violent criminal migrants from our city, there is really only one thing he can do — bring it to the voters.” Ariola told The Post.
Adams appointed the 13-member commission to come up with proposals to assist the city’s housing crisis, but his reps refused to say why he won’t also ask it to review the sanctuary city laws.
Instead, his spokesperson Liz Garcia said the commission “is an independent body that reviews and recommends possible changes to the City Charter. We look forward to hearing from New Yorkers on the issues that matter most to them.”
A commission spokesman declined comment.
