President Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Sunday pushed back on the idea that prosecutors were ordered to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in exchange for access to Rikers Island.
“It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams, [and in] exchange, he let you into Rikers,” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Homan on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Is that what happened?”
Homan responded to Bash, saying, “That’s ridiculous … Mayor Adams [and I] met [a] couple months ago.”
“We talked about getting a presence in Rikers Island, we talked about how we can collaborate on public safety threats,” Homan said Sunday.
The DOJ recently ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams, who had gotten close with President Trump in recent months as a bribery trial set for April neared.
Adams said he met with Homan on Thursday to get ready for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to restart operations on Rikers Island, which holds New York City’s largest jail.
“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,” Adams said in a statement.
“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,” he continued.
The ICE office on Rikers Island shuttered 10 years ago in the wake of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signing a sanctuary city bill. There would be a focus by ICE agents specifically on “assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs,” Adams said in his previous statement.
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ, ICE and the press office for Adams. The New York City Department of Corrections directed The Hill to Thursday comments made by Adams.
“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 said.
“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,” Adams added.
Updated at 5:44 p.m. EST