Opinion: New York can’t be a pawn in Trump’s anti-immigrant rampage

Families torn apart. Children in cages. Parents deported, leaving their kids behind. These were not accidents of the first Trump administration – they were the point. Now, with Donald Trump back in the White House, he is executing an even more extreme immigration agenda: mass deportations, detention camps, and crackdowns that will devastate families and communities across New York state.

The consequences will be catastrophic – not just for immigrants, but for our entire economy. Yet rather than fighting back, New York City’s own mayor is rolling over, putting his survival ahead of the people he was elected to serve. Mayor Eric Adams, compromised and desperate to avoid prison, is surrendering our city to Trump’s enforcers. The Trump administration just stole $80 million in funding already allocated to help New York house asylum seekers. In response, Mayor Adams filed a lawsuit against the administration, alleging a violation of federal law and demanding that the funds be restored. While this legal action is a step in the right direction, it does not absolve Mayor Adams of his recent decisions to make it easier for ICE to operate in New York City or his close alignment with Trump’s deportation czar, clearly signaling his willingness to comply with future immigration crackdowns.

After months of appeasing Trump allies and instructing city officials not to object to his policies, Trump’s Justice Department suddenly backed off its corruption prosecution against Mayor Adams. The message is clear: the mayor’s staying out of prison because he’s doing Trump’s bidding. The moment he stops, those charges may come right back.

Sadly, this isn’t just a political crisis – it’s also an economic one. The billionaire class backing Trump, including unelected figures like Elon Musk who amplify anti-immigrant hate while exploiting cheap labor, want Americans to believe immigrants are the cause of economic hardship. But the truth is the opposite. If Trump lawlessly deports millions of workers, entire industries will collapse. The food supply chain will break down as crops rot in fields, trucking networks grind to a halt, and grocery prices skyrocket.

And agriculture is just one example. New York’s hospitals rely on immigrant healthcare workers. Our construction industry depends on immigrant labor to build the homes, roads, and infrastructure our economy needs. If Trump’s mass deportation effort succeeds, businesses will shutter, labor shortages will drive up inflation, and entire industries will be thrown into crisis. 

New York cannot be complicit. Since Adams is too compromised to fight back, Gov. Hochul and the state legislature must fill the leadership void now.

The state can immediately invest millions in immigration legal defense to ensure families facing deportation have representation. Right now, legal service providers are overwhelmed, forced to operate under fragile, year-to-year funding. Passing our new bill - the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Act would provide the multi-year investment needed to sustainably scale up these programs and ensure they have the tools to deliver services as efficiently and effectively as possible. This investment will allow legal aid organizations to hire and retain more attorneys, streamline intake and referral systems, and integrate holistic services into their programs. Ensuring that these life-saving programs are stable and strong is essential to keeping families together and stopping Trump’s deportation machine before it takes full effect.

Ensuring due process for all New Yorkers is crucial, which is why Albany also must pass the Access to Representation Act, guaranteeing legal services regardless of income. No one should have to navigate immigration court alone, especially when the stakes are as high as family separation and permanent deportation to dangerous countries.

Trump and Elon Musk’s vision for America is clear: a country where fear, division, and state-sanctioned cruelty reign – a country where immigrants live in terror, industries collapse due to labor shortages, and working people are pitted against each other while the ultra-rich consolidate wealth and power. It seems like a dystopian hellscape, but it is not inevitable.

New York must be a firewall against this extremist agenda, standing firm in its values and refusing to cave to pressure. The state has the power to protect families, defend our economy, and fight back against lawless cruelty. But that requires real leadership.

New York can either resist or allow compromised leadership to make us complicit. The choice is clear. We must act now, before it’s too late.