New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Mayor Eric Adams had “no plan” to deal with the Trump administration’s deportation efforts and urged the mayor to join legal fights against the president’s executive order seeking to overturn birthright citizenship.
“Several other cities prepared for this administration and for the things that were preemptively going to happen,” the speaker said Thursday before a Council meeting. “New York City’s administration had no plan, like so many other cities had, to prepare for the situation.”
The mayor's office, though, says the Council was briefed on the administration's plans 10 days prior — plans that included ongoing efforts to "protect New Yorkers."
Speaker Adams also doubled down on her call for the city to join the legal fight against Trump’s executive order, saying, “the most perverted views of our past are indeed returning today.”
The president’s order would end the constitutional right to American citizenship for every person born on U.S. soil. A judge blocked the order on Thursday, saying it was “blatantly unconstitutional,” but President Donald Trump vowed to appeal the decision.
“The president’s executive order to overturn this citizenship clause enshrined in the 14th Amendment is not only unconstitutional, but also abhorrent and ahistorical,” the speaker said. “No president possesses the power to change constitutional amendments by executive order, and this city should join the legal challenge to this unconstitutional action.”
More than two dozen states — including New York, and two cities, San Francisco and Washington D.C. — have sued over the order. New York City, and the Adams administration, have so far stayed out of the fray.
Speaker Adams said she would have liked the mayor to have prepared “a more succinct plan, preemptively” before Trump’s return to office.
“Several other cities prepared for this administration and for the things that were preemptively going to happen,” the speaker said. “New York City’s administration had no plan, like so many other cities had, to prepare for the situation.”
The mayor's office disputed that accusation, saying Council leadership was briefed on Jan. 13 about the city's plan. An agenda for the meeting, reviewed by Gothamist, included "Site & Data Protection; Trainings; Federal Advocacy; External communication."
"At a time when anxiety is incredibly heightened and misinformation is being spread, it’s puzzling why anyone would give New Yorkers anything but the facts," said mayoral spokesperson Kayla Mamelak in an emailed statement.
She did not address the legal fight against Trump's birthright order, but did say the mayor "plans to work with the new administration, not war with them. It is unfortunate that some are choosing a different course."
The mayor was asked about his response to Trump’s plans during a Wednesday night town hall meeting in Queens and urged New Yorkers to continue to go to school, go to the doctor and to call the police when needed.
“We're going to continue to stand up for all New Yorkers, documented or undocumented,” Adams said during the event at at I.S. 61 in Corona. “Our job, no matter who you are in this city, is to make sure you get the services you deserve."
This story has been updated with information from the mayor's office.
