Opinion: NYC kicked ICE out of Rikers. The City Council must keep it that way.

In New York City, we believe in fairness. In due process. In protecting families – not tearing them apart.

That’s what guided us when, as City Council members, we worked to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of Rikers Island a decade ago. 

We did it because people were being arrested – sometimes for something as small as a broken taillight or unlicensed food cart – and then quietly handed over to federal immigration authorities without a day in court. No lawyer. No hearing. No conviction. Just gone.

That’s not justice. That’s not New York.

So we drew a bright line: If you were in city custody, you wouldn’t be funneled into ICE’s hands without a judge signing off. Without some semblance of due process. 

These weren’t radical decisions. They were principled ones – passed under the Obama administration. Because justice doesn’t depend on who’s in the White House. It depends on us.

They were also the product of years of hearings, public debate and democratic process. That process delivered a clear verdict: if the federal government wants to detain someone in city custody, they need to show up with a warrant signed by a judge. No warrant? No cooperation. By 2014, ICE was out of Rikers.

Now, the Adams administration’s executive order is trying to open a back door to Rikers Island and hand ICE the key. It asks us to trust that access won’t be abused – even though we know from experience that it already has been.

City agencies have violated these rules before. People have been held in city custody illegally so ICE could get to them. Families have been torn apart without warning. The damage isn’t theoretical – it’s real, and it reaches far beyond the individuals deported.

Mayor Eric Adams claims the order only allows information-sharing in cases involving “criminal enforcement,” not civil immigration violations. But anyone who has seen ICE operate inside jails knows that distinction doesn’t hold. ICE doesn’t follow city guidance. It doesn’t limit itself. And once it has access, it rarely exercises restraint.

Does anyone really believe ICE agents will sit on their hands? That they’ll respect the mayor’s memo more than their own marching orders?

Adams often criticizes ideas that sound good on paper but don’t hold up in the real world. But that’s exactly what this is: a theoretical distinction that ICE will simply ignore.

And it is immigrant New Yorkers – many of whom haven’t been convicted of anything – who will pay the price. People waiting for their day in court could instead be picked up by ICE, detained and deported. No trial. No lawyer. No justice.

Years ago, we made a collective and democratic choice as a city to stop that from happening. We chose to protect due process, even when federal law didn’t. We chose to keep ICE out of our jails – and to stop our city from becoming a pipeline for deportation.

Adams is now reversing that choice. And he’s doing it with no public debate. 

We know what happens when trust in city government collapses. When immigrants fear calling the police or showing up to court, we’re all less safe. When families disappear overnight, entire neighborhoods lose faith in the institutions meant to protect them. And when we start treating some New Yorkers as more deserving than others, we all lose.

That’s why we drew a bright line between our jails and federal immigration enforcement – not to go easy on crime, but to ensure the law applies to everyone equally, no matter where they’re from.

We urge our successors in the City Council to step in. Stop this obvious attempt to circumvent due process before the damage is done. We’ve been down this road before. We know where it leads. And we know how long it took to undo.

We have a choice: repeat the mistakes of the past – or hold the line and protect what makes New York strong.

Now’s the time to choose.