Council locks ICE out of Rikers after overriding Adams’ veto
Queens City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán’s Safer Sanctuary Act was passed by the City Council on Thursday, a little less than a month after it was vetoed by former Mayor Eric Adams. Photo: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit
The City Council on Thursday overrode a mayoral veto of a bill that would explicitly bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from operating an office on any land owned by the city’s Department of Correction, including Rikers Island.
A supermajority of the Council voted to pass the bill, introduced by Queens City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, after former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed it on his last day in office.
The override was one of 17 passed by the Council during its Jan. 29 meeting.
City Council passed the new bill, the Safer Sanctuary Act, several months after a Manhattan judge found that an executive order from Randy Mastro, Adams’ first deputy mayor, aiming to allow ICE to operate on Rikers was illegal.
Cabán crafted it, in part, to prevent similar orders from being issued in the future. The legislation supersedes any conflicting mayoral executive order or memorandum of understanding the city has entered into with ICE.
The Queens lawmaker on Thursday claimed that the Safer Sanctuary Act was the first major piece of immigration legislation passed by the Council during the second Trump administration, which has ramped up deportations and ICE enforcement.
The override vote comes several days after ICE agents in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti and a couple of weeks after they fatally shot Renée Good, also 37.
“We are at a crossroads,” Cabán said. “The brutal assault on Minnesota is just the beginning. The Safer Sanctuary Act was precisely designed to protect New York City from the Trump-Vance administration’s authoritarianism.”
“This law ensures our sanctuary city laws protect New Yorkers regardless of which agency is enacting the horrific Trump-Vance agenda — be it the FBI, the IRS, United States Marshals or DHS,” she added.
The bill passed with a 44-7 vote. Queens City Councilmembers Joann Ariola, Phil Wong and Jim Gennaro voted against the override. Republican City Councilmember Vickie Paladino voted against the bill when it first came before the Council in December but accidentally voted for the legislation on Thursday.
“I want to clarify that this was an oversight,” Paladino said in a statement. “When this matter was originally introduced, I voted no and have consistently maintained strong opposition to it.”
The veto override was celebrated on Thursday by a number of public defense and immigration rights groups.
ICE will be unable to open an office on Rikers Island after the passage of a Queens city councilmember’s bill on Thursday. Photo: Ted Shaffrey/AP
“Today, the New York City Council stood up for our sanctuary laws and strengthened public safety by ensuring that immigration authorities cannot be allowed to operate on Rikers Island for any reason,” Zach Ahmad, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Ahmad said the law helps prevent city law enforcement from colluding with federal immigration officials on Rikers.
“By overriding Mayor Adams’ veto of this crucial legislation, the City Council has affirmed its commitment to keeping ICE off Rikers Island for good and ensured that our decades-old sanctuary laws cannot be undermined in the future,” Ahmad added.
Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said that his organization commended the Council for “overwhelmingly overriding” Adams’ shameful veto of the act, reaffirming the city’s commitment to its immigrant communities.
“This vote sends a clear message that ICE has no place at Rikers Island or any Department of Correction facility and modernizes our sanctuary laws by closing dangerous loopholes exposed by the cruel realities of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda,” Awawdeh added.
“The Council’s action sends a clear message: all New Yorkers deserve safety and protection in their city, no matter who is in the White House.”
The override of the veto puts an end to the nearly yearlong battle between the Council and the former mayor over ICE’s presence on Rikers.
The fight began in April, when Adams tapped Mastro to issue the executive order.
The mayor claimed that he kept his name off the order in an effort to stave off accusations that he had crafted the order as a favor to the Trump administration, who, only a week before, had dropped the corruption charges brought against Adams in 2024.
Despite his attempt to distance himself from the order, Adams was immediately accused of selling out the city to help Trump.
The City Council sued the mayor over the order, claiming the mayor violated the city’s charter by using his “position as a public servant” to obtain “private or personal advantage.”
After several months of litigation, New York Supreme Court Justice Mary Rosado said that she agreed. Rosado said in her ruling that the order had the “impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest.”
“The argument that the conflict was cleansed by delegating to First Deputy Mayor Mastro is farcical,” the judge’s ruling read. “First Deputy Mayor Mastro is not independent of Mayor Adams, and he was appointed and delegated the specific task of issuing Executive Order 50 after Mayor Adams made it publicly known his desired outcome.”
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