New York mayor clings to Trump as a lifeline amid legal troubles and immigration crisis

Justice has made Republican Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, and Democrat Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, strange bedfellows. The legal troubles of the incoming president and the corruption indictment hanging over the mayor have brought the two theoretical rivals closer together, as has an issue that worries both of them: immigration policy. New York has received more than 225,000 migrants since the spring of 2022, the reception of whom has cost the municipal coffers over $6 billion. The convergence of interests between Trump’s immigration policy and Adams’ request for help to resolve the pressure the newcomers have placed on the city has worked the miracle of understanding, as much as Trump’s promised pardon for the criminal case against Adams for charges related to contributions from foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official to fund his mayoral campaign in 2021.

As City Hall crumbles by the minute — a top police official resigned over the weekend after being accused of sexual harassment, and an aide to Adams was charged with corruption last Friday, the latest in a long list of collaborators — the gestures of conciliation between the two politicians are increasing. Trump has said he is considering pardoning Adams, after the latter repeatedly praised him. Politically in a slump — despite being charged, Adams has not given up on running for re-election next year — the former police officer turned mayor further alienated his fellow party members last week when, in an interview on the conservative television network Fox News, he criticized the administration of President Joe Biden with arguments so right-wing that the presenter asked him if he was considering re-affiliating with the Republican Party. A few months ago, Adams dropped the idea that he might seek re-election as mayor on the conservative ticket, although he denied it shortly afterward.

In this uneven balance of interests, it is Adams who stands to lose, and not just politically. New York’s campaign finance board recently voted to withhold up to $4.3 million of the mayor’s matching funds, making his re-election bid much more difficult. A representative of the more moderate or centrist faction of the Democrats, Adams is not, however, the only New York Democrat trying to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration; New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, has also expressed her willingness to cooperate.

In the Fox News interview, Adams said that the Democrats lost the presidential election because they had spent the campaign demonizing Trump instead of addressing “the real needs of the people.” Adams called the border czar of the future Republican administration, Tom Homan, a partner; he said that the Biden administration’s border policy had created a “pipeline for criminality,” and raised the possibility of circumventing the laws in force in New York — which is obliged to offer shelter to new arrivals — to allow the collaboration of local police with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Adams referred specifically to allowing federal agents to enter the Rikers Island jail, where hundreds of illegal immigrants, convicts, or those awaiting trial are crowded together. According to Trump’s team, the first to be deported in its mass expulsion plans will be foreigners with criminal records.

As much as immigration pressure has been steadily declining for the past five months — the city plans to close 25 shelters by March — Adams has a more pressing need: his corruption trial, scheduled for April. His political rivals, and quite a few fellow Democrats, say that praise for Trump is an obvious way to receive favorable treatment if he is convicted, something the councilman denies. After the Republican’s election victory, the New York mayor pointed out that the president-elect had also been politically persecuted in the courts, Trump’s favorite phrase to describe his judicial processes.

Adams’ conciliatory or at least cautious attitude is completely opposite to the stance adopted by New York officials eight years ago, when Trump was first elected president. It is also a far cry from the messages of Democratic governors in Illinois or California, who have taken a much more belligerent stance toward the incoming administration, denouncing Trump’s plans, calling for urgent legislative sessions, and forming special groups to preserve the rule of law. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, for example, has promised to uphold the city’s sanctuary laws, drawing harsh criticism from Homan, who has threatened to prosecute him.

Adams, on the other hand, has expressed his intention to resort to an executive order to change this policy of reception, in force since the 1980s and which has made New York one of the country’s sanctuary cities. Not content with the change of direction, Adams has also echoed a false claim made by the Republicans — from Trump to his number two, J. D. Vance, or the magnate Elon Musk — according to which hundreds of thousands of migrant children have disappeared at the border and could be victims of child labor abuse or sexual trafficking. Adams expressed his willingness to “collaborate” with the Republican immigration authorities to find the minors.

In addition to Adams and Hochul, who have expressed their agreement with the president-elect on border security issues, New York Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat who has initiated and won several cases against Trump in court, has indicated that she is willing to work with the president-elect “or anybody, regardless of party.” Such statements have angered representatives of the more progressive or leftist wing of the Democratic Party in New York, although the more pragmatic maintain that antagonizing Trump would only harm the city and the state. Starting in January, Republicans will have control of both chambers of Congress, as well as the presidency, and clearly gained ground in the city and the state in the elections last November.

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