New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with President-elect Trump’s incoming “border czar” on Thursday, with the Democratic mayor expressing an enthusiasm to work with the incoming administration to pursue violent criminals as Trump promises mass deportations. Adams' meeting with Tom Homan, who will oversee the borders and be responsible for deportation efforts, came as Adams has welcomed parts of the president-elect’s hardline immigration platform, the Associated Press reports. Adams said he and Homan agreed on pursuing people who commit violent crimes in the city. “We’re not going to be a safe haven for those who commit repeated violent crimes against innocent migrants, immigrants and longstanding New Yorkers,” he said. “That was my conversation today with the border czar, to figure out how to go after those individuals who are repeatedly committing crimes in our city.” Homan said the two connected as career law enforcement officers and that he came away from the meeting with “a whole new outlook on the mayor.”
“I’ve called him out this past year, many times, about being more of a politician than a police officer. I was wrong,” Homan told Dr. Phil McGraw on his Merit TV network. “He came through today as a police officer and a mayor that cares about the safety and security of his city.” The meeting marked Adams’ latest and most definitive step toward collaborating with the Trump administration, a development that has startled critics in one of the most liberal cities. Adams has mused about potentially scaling back the city’s so-called sanctuary policies. He has said migrants accused of crimes shouldn’t have due process rights under the Constitution, though he eventually walked back those comments. The mayor stunned Democrats when he sidestepped questions last week on whether he would consider changing parties to become a Republican, telling journalists that he was part of the “American party.” Adams clarified that he would remain a Democrat. For Adams, a centrist Democrat known for quarreling with the city’s progressive left, the recent comments on immigration follow frustration with the Biden administration over its immigration policies and a surge of international migrants in the city. Adams argues he’s trying to protect New Yorkers, pointing to the law-and-order platform he has staked out throughout his political career and while running for mayor. Adams reiterated his commitment to New York’s generous social safety net. “We’re going to tell those who are here, who are law-abiding, to continue to utilize the services that are open to the city, the services that they have a right to utilize, educating their children, health care, public protection,” he said. “But we will not be the safe haven for those who commit violent acts.”
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