NYC mayor proposes tightening restrictions of sanctuary city law

In a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams said that individuals committing crimes should be handed over to federal authorities. “I don’t believe people who are violent in our city and commit repeated crimes should have the privilege of being in our city,” Adams said. He said New York’s sanctuary city laws need to change.

What are the current sanctuary city laws? Current New York City sanctuary city laws, signed by former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, restrict local law enforcement from working with ICE and other federal authorities in many cases. The older sanctuary city law, enacted under former NYC Mayor Edward Koch in 1989, ordered local law enforcement to interact with federal authorities if immigrants were charged with a crime.

Does Adams have suggestions for changes? Adams said he would like to see a return to Koch’s 1989 statute so that people charged with crimes could be turned over to federal authorities.

Why is he suggesting this? Adams discussed cases of repeat offenders who were illegal immigrants and said “chains of robberies” had been conducted by illegal immigrants. He did not discuss the murder of 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whom an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered while Riley was jogging. Her suspected murderer, Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra, had been previously charged with crimes in New York, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green wrote in a letter.

Dig deeper: Read Addie Offereins’ report in Compassion on evangelicals seeking to bring a Biblical worldview to the immigration debate.