The New York City Council was accused of fear in their fight to stop the ice on Rikers Island, a lawyer for the mayor’s office said in court Friday.
Adams administration’s lawyer James Catterson has discussed Judge Mary Rosado in response to a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order (TRO) placed in Adams’ office, banning him from working with the federal government in his intended prison.
“All of these are nothing but speculation,” Cutterson said of the council’s debate. This caused distrust over the relationship between the Trump administration and Mayor Eric Adams.
Rosado voted to restrain the extension of the restraining order until the next preliminary hearing scheduled for May 29th.
City Council lawyer Daniel Cornstein argued that the ice push on the suffering prison island was the result of a “rotten bargain” between Adams officials and the U.S. Attorney General.
“[The Trump administration]twists this process into something that’s not writing it down,” Cornstein said.
“And I know from the past few months that (Adams’) administration is lawless in dealing with court orders from the highest courts of the land,” he argued.
The city council filed a restraining order against the administration after signing an executive order earlier this month allowing the mayor’s office to reopen Riker’s office.
The order was announced by the first vice mayor Randy Mastro as Mayor Adams rejected himself from the law in an attempt to avoid a dispute.
“The delegation won’t fix it because the mayor didn’t reject himself,” Cornstein said.
Mastro said Adams’ team was “disappointed” at the ruling to extend the TRO at a post-hearing press conference.
“It prevents the city from protecting it from violent transboundary criminal gangs declared a terrorist organization,” the first deputy mayor argued.
ICE previously held offices in prisons until 2014, when then Mayor de Blasio enacted a law for the Sanctuary City, which called for the removal of government agencies.
Mayor Adams began expressing his support for the reopening shortly after Donald Trump’s border emperor Tom Homan threatened the New York mayor to “be on top of him” if he was immigrants and did not work with the Trump team.
The order will only keep the ice involved in criminal investigations if granted by Riker, but the council is looming if the agency acts on a civil lawsuit.
Mastro said the administration is working on templates internally and believes it will address those issues.
After the hearing, City Council Speaker Adrian Adams told TRO supporters and media members:
“This represents an important step by the court to protect the public safety of our city and keep all New Yorkers safe. We examine New York City further vulnerable the Trump administration’s extreme agenda, and examine our efforts by blocking the mayor from blocking the mayor by enabling these attacks on the safety and rights of those whom he appears to represent,” she said.
