Even as Mayor Eric Adams embraces a nonprosecution deal explicitly intended to help him cooperate with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, his istration is backing away from a controversial directive to rank-and-file city workers on their role.
In a sanctuary city laws limiting cooperation.
Conspicuously missing: A line that had alarmed city employees and immigrant advocates in previous official memos, informing city workers that they should cooperate with federal immigration enforcers “If, at any time, you reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you.” The memo was first revealed by Hell Gate.
The new directive instead instructs city workers to “never engage in a physical or verbal altercation with a law enforcement officer.” Consistent with previous instructions, the presentation asks employees to seek the guidance of their agency’s counsel’s office and to cooperate with judicial warrants.
“We will not put a frontline worker in harm’s way and subject to arrest by federal officers simply by doing their job,” said Goode-Trufant.
The new guidance was expected to be circulated among city agencies this week, according to Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams, and comes a day after agency commissioners and top lawyers were summoned to a meeting where Mayor Eric Adams .
Hours later, Trump’s Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors in New York’s Southern District to drop four corruption charges against Adams, in a letter that cited the need for Adams to help with immigration enforcement within the five boroughs.
The latest guidance appeared to revert back to earlier guidance, reported on by THE CITY last month, that required city workers to request a judicial warrant and send it to legal counsel and only allow the federal agents into the building once counsel had approved.
The Department of Education has its own separate specific guidance for potential visits by federal law enforcement, as do the NYPD and the Department of Correction, according to Goode-Trufant, who did not provide details. A spokesperson for City Hall didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did spokespeople for the NYPD or Department of Correction.
Schools, churches and hospitals all over the country have been grappling with how they might handle potential incursions by ICE in the days since Trump rescinded a long-standing guidance that discouraged from conducting immigration enforcement in such so-called sensitive locations.
Murad Awawdeh, the President of the New York Immigration Coalition, said he appreciated Goode-Trufant’s clarification, but said it wouldn’t “undo the harm of the policies they put out last week.”
Awawdeh pointed out the Justice Department memo released Tuesday requesting federal prosecutors drop charges against Adams, demanding his cooperation on immigration enforcement, something the mayor is explicitly barred from doing in most instances under New York City’s sanctuary laws.
“This is a moment for the mayor to say the words out of his mouth: ‘We will not coordinate with immigration enforcement. We will not collaborate with immigration enforcement,’” he said.
Claudia Irizarry-Aponte and Katie Honan contributed reporting.
