Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Members, and Civil Rights Advocates Celebrate State Supreme Court’s Final Ruling Blocking Trump’s New ICE Office on Rikers

City leaders highlight how Trump administration's continued, extreme actions to separate families and target city's immigrant communities undermine public safety

Council emphasizes over $80 million for immigration legal services secured in budget as critical to safeguard New Yorkers' civil rights

City Hall, NY - Today, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Members, and civil rights advocates held a press conference highlighting the New York State Supreme Court's final decision that invalidated Mayor Adams' executive order to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office on Rikers Island. The decision was the fourth consecutive court ruling against Mayor Adams' administration for attempting to grant President Trump's ICE and other federal agencies with special access to Rikers. Prior to her final decision, New York State Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado issued an interim temporary restraining order (TRO), TRO, and a preliminary injunction prohibiting any advancement of the executive order. The Council's lawsuit argued a conflict of interest by the mayoral administration, specifically that "Executive Order 50 is the poisoned fruit of Mayor Adams's deal with the Trump Administration: if the Mayor cooperated with the administration's immigration enforcement priorities, including by permitting ICE to operate on Rikers, the charges against him would be dismissed."

The city leaders illustrated the ways in which the Trump administration's extreme political agenda to separate families, target communities, and threaten interference in cities undermines public safety. The Trump administration has been targeting more New Yorkers without criminal convictions or charges, including those seeking to comply with mandated immigration court appearances, and public-school students. The federal actions have spread chaos and fear in New York City neighborhoods, undermining economic activity and tourism. President Trump has recently been threatening to send the national guard into cities, including New York City.

"The courts recognized all along that Mayor Adams and Randy Mastro's attempt to do Trump's bidding-and by extension, betray their obligation to New Yorkers-was unlawful," said Speaker Adrienne Adams. "This City Council has stood firm to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers from Trump's extreme political agenda, which has weaponized ICE to disregard due process Constitutional rights, separate families, and target our diverse communities. The Trump administration's continued actions undermine public safety in our city, because when New Yorkers are afraid of cooperating with our local officials and discouraged from reporting crime and seeking help, our city is less safe. The Council will remain united to protect New Yorkers' civil rights and safety from extreme, intrusive federal overreach that harms our city."

An excerpt from the New York State Supreme Court's decision reads:
"The Court need not reach whether there actually was a conflict of interest because the timeline of public statements and the ongoing criminal prosecution so clearly demonstrate an impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest. The appearance of this conflict and Mayor Adams' failure to recuse himself fully tainted the entire process by which Executive Order 50 was issued, making it null and void pursuant to New York City Charter. The argument that the conflict was cleansed by delegating to First Deputy Mayor Mastro farcical."

The Council secured over $80 million dollars for immigration legal services in the recently adopted Fiscal Year 2026 budget to protect New Yorkers' civil rights in immigration-related legal proceedings, as the Trump administration engages in extreme actions that target New Yorkers and disregard Constitutional rights. The funding includes a new $16.5 million initiative to provide legal services for unaccompanied minors and adults with children navigating the immigration court system.

"Allowing ICE to set up operations on Rikers Island would mean a terrifying threat to the hundreds of vulnerable New Yorkers, and a direct line for more horrific, violent kidnappings," said Council Member Alexa Avilés, chair of the Committee on Immigration. "The City Council immediately jumped in to fight this unlawful, unjust, and destructive executive order because we refuse to allow New Yorkers' rights to be dismantled. We will not allow our public resources to be drained for Trump's mass deportation agenda. But this is only one fight in a sea of injustices. While we applaud the decision by NYS Supreme Court Judge Mary Rosado to protect our laws, we also must keep our sights on the future, so we can carry on our fight for the safety of our city. The City Council will continue to stand up for our immigrant neighbors and we will not comply with violence."

"Judge Rosado's decision to block Mayor Adams from putting ICE back on Rikers is a victory not only for our immigrant communities, but for the human rights of all New Yorkers," said Council Member Sandy Nurse, Chair of the Committee on Criminal Justice. "Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda is racist, cruel, and we will not stand for it. The court's ruling sends a powerful message: New York City will not be bullied into violating our sanctuary laws."

"I'm proud to join the New York City Council in fighting against Eric Adams and Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda," said Council Member Shekar Krishnan. "We are a City Council committed to protecting New Yorkers, from overriding the Mayor's veto of my legislation to safeguard immigrant street vendors to fighting Adams in court to prevent Trump from opening an ICE office on Rikers Island. This latest court decision makes our city safer and ensures New York City is not a blank check for Donald Trump."

"We applaud the court for striking down the Mayor's attack on sanctuary, which sought to return ICE to Rikers Island and give them free reign to target New Yorkers, and we are grateful for the leadership of our City Council and the Speaker who stood up for our values as a city," said Yasmine Farhang, Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project. "To roll back the clock a decade would have fueled a severe abuse of power against New Yorkers - especially Black, Latinx and other immigrants of color - at the same time that the violence, abuse and mismanagement at Rikers worsens daily. Together we are clear and unequivocal: our city's historic sanctuary laws ensure that the rights of New Yorkers are protected and that our city resources help all New Yorkers thrive."

"This decision rightly stops Mayor Adams's dangerous, anti-immigrant policy in its tracks," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "Giving ICE the keys to Rikers Island violates New York City's sanctuary laws, puts immigrant New Yorkers in jeopardy, and serves no legitimate purpose. Instead of cozying up to Trump and making needless concessions to ICE, we encourage Mayor Adams to respect the will of the people and uphold New York City's well-established sanctuary laws."

"Early this year, Mayor Adams sold out immigrant New Yorkers by attempting to allow ICE to reopen an office at Rikers Island, in a quid pro quo with President Trump to get his corruption charges dropped. This was a shameless attempt to help the Trump Administration carry out its mass criminalization and deportation agenda for the mayor's selfish benefits," said Melanie Dominguez, organizing director for the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. "Yesterday, Justice Mary V. Rosado ruled that the Mayor's Executive Order to allow immigration authorities into Rikers Island presented a conflict of interest and was outright illegal. We hail this ruling; instead of working with ICE to further criminalize immigrants, the Mayor should be working to shut down the deadly jail complex and protect all New Yorkers."

"This ruling is a critical victory for all New Yorkers and a rejection of the federal government's mass deportation agenda, and of the Adams administration's unlawful and dangerous Executive Order 50," said Meghna Philip, Director of the Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society. "The Executive Order was a clear violation of New York City's sanctuary protections and would have opened the door to racial profiling, wrongful deportations, and constitutional violations by ICE on Rikers Island. The court's decision ensures that ICE stays out of New York City jails and that our sanctuary city laws are upheld."

"The court's decision to strike down Mayor Adams's Executive Order 50 is a major victory for immigrant New Yorkers and for our city as a whole," said Rex Chen, Supervising Counsel for Immigrant Rights, LatinoJustice PRLDEF. "True public safety comes from protecting rights and keeping families together, not from collaborating with ICE. LatinoJustice will continue fighting to protect immigrant communities and to permanently shut down Rikers Island once and for all."

"The law is clear: The Department of Corrections cannot expend limited city resources on federal law enforcement. New York City has always been, and will always be a city of immigrants," said Brittany S. Brown, Supervising Attorney, Collateral Consequences Unit at New York County Defender Services. "This decision affirms our city's commitment to the rights of all New Yorkers and further affirms that every New Yorker has the right to due process and to see their criminal case through without unlawful interference and disruption from ICE. We thank the NYC Council for fighting to uphold our city's laws and for defending the rights of non-citizens."

"We are proud to be here with Speaker Adams, Council Members, and other immigration advocates and legal service providers standing up for the rights of our New York City immigrant communities," said Leslie C. Allen, Director of Legal Services, the New York City Anti-Violence Project. "Allowing ICE to operate at Rikers would have undermined the safety of all New Yorkers, and especially the safety of LGBTQ+ immigrant survivors of violence. Implementation of Executive Order 50 would have posed a direct threat to New York City's sanctuary policies, endangering vulnerable LGBTQ+ immigrants and jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of New York City. We are grateful to the City Council for pushing back against Mayor Adams' administration and for the court's decision which has safeguarded access to law enforcement and essential services for all New Yorkers."

"The Mayor's attempt to bring ICE back to Rikers Island has failed," said Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition. "By declaring the Mayoral Administration's executive order to re-open an ICE office at Rikers 'null and void,' the NYS Supreme Court has offered a vital degree of protection for our immigrant neighbors. Thousands of New Yorkers will no longer face the prospect of detention and deportation because they were sent to Rikers after being simply accused - not convicted - of a crime. New York City must never collude with the Federal Administration's mass deportation agenda, and our Mayor should be ensuring that every New Yorker has their due process rights protected. We commend the NYS Supreme Court, Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Council and the people of New York for continuing to stand up for our immigrant neighbors."

"With this ruling, the court shut the door on this politically motivated and entirely baseless attempt to strengthen the arrest-to-deportation pipeline in New York City," said Rosa Cohen-Cruz, Director of Immigration Policy at The Bronx Defenders. "We commend the Speaker, New York City Council, and the Public Advocate for swiftly and courageously standing up for our sanctuary policies, which have kept New Yorkers safe and advanced justice for all."

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