Deporting criminal illegal aliens from sanctuary city will 'take a lifetime,' warns NYC ICE director



Kenneth Genalo, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York City field office, warned that "it would take a lifetime" to deport the criminal illegal aliens currently residing in the city.

Since the spring of 2022, over 223,000 immigrants have arrived in New York City.

'The majority of these crimes that are being committed are against ... migrant females and the migrant children.'

On Friday, Genalo told the New York Post that his regional ICE office requires "additional resources" to handle the ongoing immigration crisis.

He stated that "it would take a lifetime to clear the city of the criminals that we have," given New York City's current trajectory.

Genalo suggested that his field office, which includes 400 workers, is investigating thousands of cases per day.

"The fact is that I have to focus all of my resources on the worst of the worst, the most egregious violators. All I can tell you is we have leads that we work every day — and it's not in the hundreds," Genalo told the Post.

He noted that New York City's sanctuary policies are hindering ICE from detaining and deporting criminal illegal aliens.

Genalo expressed interest in testifying before the city council to "educate" far-left members on the dangers of the city's current policies.

"The only people they're shielding are the criminals, and they're shielding the criminals from us," he told the Post.

"The majority of these crimes that are being committed are against the most vulnerable people in the community, and that's the migrant females and the migrant children. I don't understand how they believe sanctuary policies are helping or assisting," Genalo explained.

According to ICE data, through July 21, of the roughly 7.8 million illegal aliens in the country, more than 660,000 are convicted felons or are facing pending criminal charges.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has also previously called on the city council to roll back sanctuary policies.

"The mayor knows we need to cooperate," Genalo told the news outlet. "He sees what's going on in New York City, and he wants help from the federal government."

Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) slammed the Biden administration after its Customs and Border Protection announced on Tuesday that it would be reducing office hours at many ports of entry, including four along New York's northern border.

Hochul said, "While the Biden-Harris Administration has achieved measurable success in enhancing southern border security, New York is experiencing a dramatic increase in irregular crossings along our northern border."

"We need to expand enforcement at the northern border today, and I call on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reverse this decision," she added.

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NYC to add more cops with funds previously earmarked for immigrant crisis



Within a year, there will be more than 1,500 new members of New York's Finest, thanks to an influx in funds that were previously intended to address the immigrant crisis, the New York Post reported.

The next two classes of NYPD officers — set to graduate in January and April 2025, respectively — had been nixed last year amid major budget cuts meant to help address the hordes of illegal immigrants pouring into the city.

Now, with more than $100 million restored to NYPD coffers, those two classes have been reinstated, meaning that 1,600 rookie cops will be out on the streets by next October, according to the Post, citing sources in City Hall.

'We're making even MORE investments to public safety, affordability, and livability for working-class New Yorkers.'

On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams (D) basically confirmed that report during a press conference to discuss the new budget cycle.

"The November plan adds two police academy classes, which will put 1,600 new officers on our streets by October 2025, increasing our uniformed force to nearly 34,000, getting back and reaching our goal of 35,000 officers patrolling our streets," Adams said at the press conference.

"That's a lot of officers," he continued, "who alongside all the civilian employees of the NYPD work day in and day out to keep us safe."

The X post with a livestream of the press conference included the message: "We're making even MORE investments to public safety, affordability, and livability for working-class New Yorkers."

— (@)

During the press conference, Adams celebrated the reduced cost of addressing the immigrant crisis. According to a press release from his office, the city will save nearly $500 million over the next two fiscal years "primarily due to lower-than-expected number of asylum seekers entering the city's care since July 2024."

Earlier this month — just days after President-elect Donald Trump soundly defeated Kamala Harris, largely on account of the border crisis — New York City decided to end a program which provided thousands of immigrants living at the Roosevelt Hotel with prepaid debit cards in lieu of boxed meals. One of the main reasons cited for ending the program was the dwindling number of new arrivals.

Likewise during the press conference on Wednesday, Adams announced the appointment of Jessica Tisch as the new NYPD commissioner and referenced an officer who was shot in Queens on Tuesday night.

Officer Rich Wong, a seven-year veteran of the force, was wounded during a shootout with a violent suspect who had reportedly committed several armed robberies in the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica. During the shootout, the suspect, 57-year-old Gary Worthy, managed to shoot Wong in the thigh. Wong returned fire, fatally striking Worthy in the face.

Thankfully, Wong has already been discharged from the hospital. An innocent bystander was also wounded in the incident but is expected to survive, the Post reported.

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NYC Mayor Adams slams Dems for focusing more on Hitler, fascism rhetoric over 'working-class people issues'



New York City Mayor Eric Adams slammed his fellow Democrats for focusing too much of their campaign messaging on fascism fears rather than speaking to "working-class people issues."

In a Friday appearance on ABC News' "The View," Adams told the left-leaning panel that the Democratic Party lost the election because it failed to prioritize addressing issues that impact everyday Americans.

'What are we doing for everyday people in the country?'

"What you saw in this city and this election, when you saw a shift in the city and the state becoming redder, is because we stopped talking about working-class people issues," Adams stated. "What moms and pops are afraid, 'I can't pay my college tuition. The rent is too damn high. Health care is too expensive.' We stopped talking to everyday New Yorkers and Americans."

Adams explained that working-class Americans are far more concerned about affordability than fascism. He seemed to criticize Democrats for campaigning on comparing President-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.

"When I'm in the street talking to them, they're not asking me, 'Tell me about fascism,'" Adams claimed. "They're talking about finance. They're not talking about Hitler; they're talking about housing. We need to talk to everyday, working-class people, and we stopped doing that."

Co-host Joy Behar pushed back on Adams' comments, arguing that Democrats did address those issues.

"Part of the business of campaigning is getting your message out and being clear with your message," Adams replied. "Even the experts in their party were saying, 'Get back to the message.' What are we doing for everyday people in the country? And this same thing happened in 2022. When I got elected in 2022, I stated that, 'Listen, we need to be talking about crime in this country.' They ignored it. We lost the election. During 2023, I said we had to deal with this migrant-asylum issue. It was on the top one or two issues in the country. We ignored it. We have to go back and talk to those issues that people are worried about."

Since April 2022, more than 210,000 foreign nationals have arrived in New York City. The city's taxpayers have spent over $2.3 billion to provide accommodations for the migrants.

Adams announced last week that the city will stop supplying migrant arrivals with prepaid debit cards at the end of the year, Blaze News previously reported.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams Seeks Early Trial To Clear Deck For Re-Election Campaign

'An earlier trial date will ensure that Mayor Adams’s speedy trial rights are upheld'

Mayor Adams nixes major perk for some illegal aliens in NYC



New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has announced that a program to provide prepaid debit cards to thousands of illegal aliens will soon come to a close.

At the start of the year, the city began implementing the pilot program, which provided prepaid debit cards to a fraction of the estimated 60,000 migrants living in its shelters.

'A total amount not to exceed $53 [million] … in accordance with the scope of services and fees.'

City officials initially defended the program, claiming it would cut costs in comparison to the boxed-meal service migrants had been receiving and permitted migrants to purchase food that they prefer or that better suited their dietary restrictions. It also allowed them to buy baby supplies as needed.

The amount migrants have received varies, but a family of four with two young children has typically received about $350 per week. Since the program began, about 2,600 migrants living at the Roosevelt Hotel have been given a total of about $3.2 million, a figure that officials believe is about half the cost of the boxed-meal service.

However, critics raised red flags about the program almost from the moment it came to light.

For one thing, it is unclear whether the purchases made on the cards have ever been monitored. While the cards reportedly work only at grocery stores, convenience stores, and bodegas, they may still have been spent on items unrelated to food and other necessities, though recipients were required to sign an affidavit promising to use them only for their intended purpose.

Moreover, such prepaid debit cards have not been offered to the homeless and other poor American citizens living in the city, prompting New York Council member Joseph Borelli to describe the program as "fundamentally unfair." He and other Republicans on the council argued that the debit cards incentivized more illegal aliens to relocate to NYC.

Though it was billed as a cost-saving measure, the program also came as the result of a one-year, "emergency," no-bid contract with New Jersey-based tech startup Mobility Capital Finance. The truncated process meant no competing offers and little time for thorough consideration.

City Comptroller Brad Lander has since revoked the city's ability to enter into such emergency, no-bid contracts for services for migrants.

The overall cost of the program has also been obscured. While some reports indicate that MoCaFi receives only $400,000 for its services, the New York Post claimed back in February that the contract itself showed MoCaFi would receive "a total amount not to exceed $53 [million] ... in accordance with the scope of services and fees" and that the $53 million sum did NOT include the money loaded onto the debit cards.

Despite these concerns, the city council announced in July that it would expand the program. Now, with the contract about to expire at the end of the year, Adams has reversed course and decided not to renew it.

"As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes," Adams said in a statement, WABC-TV reported Thursday.

Adams did not explain further why the program had been nixed. However, City Hall spokesperson William Fowler insisted that concerns about possible waste, fraud, and abuse never came to pass, Gothamist reported.

"We will continue to implement and learn from innovative pilot programs like the immediate response cards program as we care for hundreds of new arrivals every week," Fowler said.

The announcement regarding the demise of the program comes just days after former President Donald Trump, who campaigned heavily on securing the border and deporting the millions of illegal immigrants who entered the country under the Biden-Harris administration, decisively beat Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams To Stand Trial In April On Federal Corruption Charges

'It doesn't give him a realistic chance'

House Panel To Refer Andrew Cuomo Be Prosecuted Over Report On COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths

'Conscious, calculated effort'

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Undermines Harris’s ‘Fascist’ Accusation Against Trump, Makes Call To ‘Dial Down The Temperature’

Major Blue City Mayor Undermines Harris's 'Fascist' Accusation Against Trump, Makes Call To 'Dial Down The Temperature'

NYC to shutter violent immigrant shelter — and house immigrants with tourists in hotels instead



New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced Wednesday that the city plans to shut down the sprawling Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center located on Randall’s Island, which, at its peak, was able to house 3,000 immigrants.

The tent shelter, which is slated to close down at the end of February, and the surrounding area have become a hotbed for violence since it opened last August.

'Large scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency.'

Adams noted that the city has already reduced its capacity by dismantling the largest residential tent structure, which was used to hold 750 cots. One of the athletic fields, a site previously utilized as shelter space, will be returned to community use after it undergoes restorations.

“Over the coming months, the city will continue to gradually reduce the population on-site. Following the site’s closure in February, the city will invest in restoring the remaining impacted athletic fields and parkland,” the city reported.

Adams noted that New York City, which has seen a massive increase in illegal alien arrivals under the Biden-Harris administration, is “not out of the woods yet.”

He credits his office’s “smart management strategies and successful advocacy” for helping the city “turn[] the corner on the crisis.” Specifically, Adams noted that his 30-day shelter limits for individuals and 60-day limits for families have helped reduce capacity.

“We’re not scrambling every day to open new shelters — we’re talking about closing them. We’re not talking about how much we’re spending — we’re talking about how much we’ve saved,” Adams stated. “And thanks to today’s announcement, in a few months, we’ll be talking about how much we’re investing in restoring Randall’s Island’s incredible fields and parks for community use. I want to thank the Randall’s Island Park Alliance and every New Yorker who has partnered with us to manage this unprecedented influx of asylum seekers and make sure that our newest arrivals have the same opportunity that we all have to pursue the American Dream.”

According to Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, nearly a quarter million immigrants were funneled through the city’s shelter system since Spring 2022.

“Roughly seven in 10 of those seeking asylum have moved on to the next part of their journey, and today’s announcement is another step on our path through our humanitarian response. With 14 straight weeks of lower numbers of new arrivals seeking asylum, we are now able to transition from this large humanitarian relief center, which is a step in the right direction,” Williams-Isom said.

However, a New York Post report also released on Wednesday revealed that the city’s Department of Homeless Services is seeking a massive 14,000-room hotel contract with properties around the city.

The news outlet noted that roughly 150 New York City hotels are already providing rooms to immigrants. The cost of those accommodations combined with spending on immigrant services over a three-year period is estimated to reach $5.76 billion for local taxpayers.

The city’s current three contracts with the New York City Hotel Association cost taxpayers $352 per night per room.

The Department of Homeless Services wrote in its solicitation for proposals that it “is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency.”

Hotel Association President Vijay Dandapani told the Post, “We will be filling in the RFP [request for proposal].”

He stated that the association’s foundation receives roughly $100,000 monthly to fulfill the existing three contracts with the city.

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Eric Adams's Top Deputy Mayor Resigns, Becoming Seventh Official To Exit Amid Corruption Probe

New York City deputy mayor Sheena Wright, a key ally of Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned—becoming the seventh senior official to leave the administration amid an ongoing corruption investigation into the mayor.

The post Eric Adams's Top Deputy Mayor Resigns, Becoming Seventh Official To Exit Amid Corruption Probe appeared first on .