The New York City Council on Tuesday filed a lawsuit requesting a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against Mayor Eric Adams’ Executive Order 50, which allowed federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to operate an office on Rikers Island.
The lawsuit contends that the executive order, which was issued by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro on April 8, is unlawful, tainted by the conflict of interest created by the corrupt bargain the mayor entered with President Donald Trump, according to a press release.
The law is clear that the mayor is "unable to cure that conflict of interest" by delegating his authority to open an ICE office to Deputy Mayor Mastro, the city council said. “Executive Order 50 is the poisoned fruit of Mayor Adams’s deal with the Trump Administration," the peition reads.
“Once again, this City Council is standing firm to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers against attacks by the Trump administration—because the city’s mayor won’t stop placing his own personal interests ahead of the people of our city,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams.
The speaker said the mayor has compromised the city’s sovereignty and is now threatening the safety of all New Yorkers.
"When New Yorkers are afraid of cooperating with our city’s own police and discouraged from reporting crime and seeking help, it makes everyone in our city less safe," she said. "New York cannot afford its mayor colluding with the Trump administration to violate the law, and this lawsuit looks to the court to uphold the basic standard of democracy, even if our mayor won’t.”
The City Council on passed a resolution Thursday that empowers itself to sue the mayor over his decision to allow federal agencies, including ICE, to operate on Rikers Island.
