Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Mayor Adams has sparked a debate over NYC’s ‘sanctuary city’ status. What does it mean?
By
Joseph Capriglione
and
Sean Carlson
Published Mar 2, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
By
Joseph Capriglione
and
Sean Carlson
Published Mar 2, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Mayor Eric Adams, in a major break with his predecessors, recently said New York City should modify its “sanctuary city” policies limiting communication and cooperation between local agencies and federal immigration-enforcement officials.
Twice this week, Adams told reporters he thinks city agencies should be empowered to cooperate with federal authorities to deport immigrants suspected of committing violent or serious crimes.
Prevailing policy bars the city from honoring requests by immigration authorities to hold or detain suspects for immigration officials unless the accused person has been convicted of certain violent crimes and a judge has ordered their removal. It also bars the use of city personnel or other resources to help enforce immigration laws.
“We should be communicating with ICE [federal Immigration and Custom Enforcement], and if ICE makes the determination of deporting, then they should,” Adams said, as reported by the AP.
Muzaffar Chishti is a senior fellow and director of the Migrant Policy Institute office at New York University School of Law.
Photo courtesy of the Migrant Policy Institute
The comments from the Democrat and retired NYPD captain followed a series of high-profile violent crimes where migrants were charged as suspects. Adams' remarks prompted a host of questions about sanctuary city policies — not the least of which is what the politically loaded designation actually means.
"All Things Considered" host Sean Carlson discussed these issues with Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow and director at the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute's NYU Law School office. A transcript of their conversation follows. It has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Carlson: The term "sanctuary city" has become such a political football over the years. I'm not even sure many people even know what it actually means. So, can we start with what is a sanctuary city and how did New York City become one?
Chishti: Well, there's no dictionary meaning, and there's no legal meaning of the word "sanctuary." So it has evolved over time. And I think people really have a misconception as if, if you're a sanctuary city, that the mayor of the city hides unauthorized people under his desk. I mean, that's not what a sanctuary city does.
Sanctuary city policies in our city, in New York, have evolved since the early ‘80s. They started with Mayor Koch. They were reaffirmed by Mayor David Dinkins, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Mayor Bill de Blasio — both Republican and Democratic mayors.
And they were not immigration policies. They are policies about public safety. The mayors realize that in order for us to improve public safety in our city, we want to make sure that anyone, including immigrants, including unauthorized immigrants, feel safe to report crimes and be witnesses in a crime — that if the city agency then cooperates with federal law enforcement agencies and threatens the removal, that's going to impede that.
That's sort of what the foundation of sanctuary policies is. Each city makes a determination about which violent criminals are important for them to be removed. And that changes from time to time.
The mayors realize that in order for us to improve public safety in our city, we want to make sure that anyone, including immigrants, including unauthorized immigrants, feel safe to report crimes and be witnesses in a crime ...
Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow and director at the Migration Policy Institute at New York University Law School.
The problem with what our mayor today is saying — that just because someone is accused of a crime, that should lead to deportation — [is] that cannot happen in our constitutional system. No matter how bad the migrant crisis is, we cannot ignore bedrock constitutional principles.
Does the city's sanctuary status mean that ICE can't make arrests in the five boroughs?
If ICE has a warrant, they can make an arrest. That was the proposition even under the de Blasio the administration, which further lessened cooperation with ICE. The issue is, does the local law enforcement agency on their own hand over migrants to ICE? And that's sort of where the difference is. If they have a warrant, they can arrest anyone they want.
Supporters of the sanctuary designation say it helps to drive down crime. It allows migrants or immigrants to step forward and cooperate with police. Detractors say it encourages people to enter and remain in the country without authorization. Are either of those claims borne out by data?
Well, the data shows — all studies across the political spectrum show — that crime among immigrants, both unauthorized and authorized, is lower than among [the] native-born population. And some of that is obvious: Unauthorized people especially do not want to have a bad brush with the law, because there are consequences for that.
So it's logical that it's lower. On the other hand, I don't think just because people think that they have a constitutional right to protection if they're accused of a crime, I don't think that's the magnet for people to come to the country illegally or to stay here illegally.
You mentioned that the first sanctuary policy was based on an executive order signed by then-Mayor Koch. It's been reissued by his successors, both Democrat and Republican. So what, if anything, can the mayor do on his own to change the city's laws, and does he need the City Council for it at all?
What happened is, the policies in the past from Mayor Koch all the way to Mayor de Blasio were set by the mayors.
The man who was most aggressive about [maintaining] non-cooperation between the city and the federal government was Mayor Giuliani. He actually sued the federal government after a change in federal law aimed at weakening cities’ non-cooperation policies. So there's a huge history, bipartisan history on this.
I think what changed in the de Blasio administration is that the City Council was allowed more leeway in deciding what levels of criminals could be handed over to ICE. So if the mayor wants to change that policy he now has to involve the City Council in deciding what levels of criminals can be handed over.
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow and director of the Migration Policy Institute office at New York University School of Law. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks so much for having me.
Tagged
ICE
Asylum Seekers
sanctuary city
Race And Justice Unit
Politics
eric adams
Joseph Capriglione
Read more
Sean Carlson
Before coming to New York Public Radio, Sean worked in print, online and radio news around the mid-Atlantic region and Alaska. A New Jersey native, he holds a B.A. from the New School University in Greenwich Village and an M.A. from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .