The hesitant Eric Adams, controversial interview with Homan

Following the publication on X about his meeting with Tom Homan "the border czar" in which Eric Adams, mayor of New York had agreed with Homan to work together to eliminate violent gangs of migrants in the city and discuss the possibility of including New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives in different federal groups, this Friday in a television appearance on Fox News, also standing alongside Tom Homan, the mayor of New York maintained his stance and defended New York's "sanctuary city" status and said: "If you’re in this city and you’re paying taxes, you should have access to the services."

He added: “Everyday people who are here, they’re moving to be documented, if they are going to school, working, paying taxes, then they should be able to [obtain] police services, hospital services, children should go to school.”

But Homan came out and disagreed with him and insisted that the law (protecting illegal immigrants) was just a "crime sanctuary."

And he continued, “I’m strictly against 'sanctuary city' status because I think sanctuaries are for criminals,” he said.

But he also noted that they were working together to improve the city's security and said "we're working on other things that we really don't want to talk about out in the open, simply because City Hall will stonewall us." He added, "but the mayor and I are committed to doing other things that will make this city safer."

Eric Adams' stumble during the interview

In one part of the interview he said he has been pushing the City Council to change the law so the NYPD can help the feds crack down on illegal immigrants.

Adams said, "What I asked the City Council to do is change the bill that was already in place and modify it … if you are committing a crime, then we should be able to collaborate with ICE — even on civil enforcement if you have committed a crime.”

And he quickly said, "that part of the bill is wrong.”

Backtracking: Adams retracts his statements

The mayor, shortly after making those televised comments, backtracked in a statement and said "there seems to be a misunderstanding," and clarified "let me be very clear, I am not opening the door to civil immigration enforcement with the federal government."

Donald Trump, the omnipresent

US President Donald Trump echoed the interview and used his social network Truth to quote an excerpt and highlighted the words the "desert czar" said about him.

Homan in the interview said he had worked with many presidents but Trump was the best and he is proving it by tackling the crisis at the border with a significant 90% decrease in just three weeks.

In that regard, the US president wrote in capital letters quoting Tom Homan.

TOM HOMAN: “I WORKED FOR SIX PRESIDENTS—I THINK PRESIDENT TRUMP IS THE GREATEST PRESIDENT OF MY LIFETIME, HE PROVES IT EVERY DAY…BORDER NUMBERS ARE DOWN OVER 90% IN THREE WEEKS…”

Background: the meeting between Homan and Adams hours before the interview

In the framework for the efforts to prevent illegal immigration being made by the Trump Administration, this Thursday New York Mayor Eric Adams had a meeting with Tom Homan a day before the interview.

The New York mayor communicated about the meeting they had on his X account in a lengthy post where he said, "as I have always said, immigrants have been crucial in building our city and will continue to be key to our future success, but we must fix our long-broken immigration system.”

He continued, "Since the spring of 2022, New York City has been forced to shoulder the burden of a national humanitarian crisis where more than 230,000 migrants have come to our city seeking support, at a cost of approximately $7 billion, with little help from the previous administration."

Moreover, he said "that is why I have been clear that I want to work with the new federal administration, not war with them, to find common ground and make the lives of New Yorkers better.”

"Today, I met with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan and local federal law enforcement officials to discuss how we can work together to remove violent migrant gangs from our city. We are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island — as was the case for 20 years — but now, instead, ICE agents would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs."

He further noted, "we also discussed ways to embed more NYPD detectives into federal task forces, focusing on these violent gangs and criminal activity."

Adams stated that, "keeping the 8.3 million New Yorkers who call our city home safe is — and will always remain — our administration’s North Star.”