The judicial maneuvers to stop the Trump administration’s deportation efforts continue — this time at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island.
A New York judge has blocked New York Mayor Eric Adams from coordinating with ICE to operate within the Rikers Island jail complex ahead of a hearing later this week.
On Monday, Judge Mary Rosado ordered city officials to temporarily halt a plan that would allow federal immigration agents on-site at the city’s jail complex, which is on a hard-to-reach island in the East River.
This is the judge that is blocking NY Mayor Eric Adams from coordinating with ICE to retrieve illegal alien CRIMINALS from Rikers Island.
Everyone, meet Judge Mary Rosado.
Let's make her famous. pic.twitter.com/o20H2r9d8A
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 22, 2025
In Rosado’s written order, the judge barred the city from “taking any steps toward negotiating, signing, or implementing any Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government” before an April 25 hearing in a suit challenging the plan.
This comes after the Democratic-controlled New York City Council filed a lawsuit against Adams last week in response to his administration’s executive order allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to operate an office at the jail complex, Fox 5 New York reports.
The suit accuses Adams, a Democrat, of entering into a “corrupt quid pro quo bargain” with the Trump administration in exchange for the Justice Department dropping criminal charges against him earlier this year, Fox News reports.
The council accuses Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent, of prioritizing his own political goals over the city’s “prized sanctuary laws.” The suit calls the executive order “the poisoned fruit of Mayor Adams’s deal with the Trump Administration.”
The council also sought a temporary restraining order to block the executive action while the court reviews the case, which prompted Rosado’s ruling.
Adams assigned his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, to handle all decision-making on the return of ICE to Rikers Island in order to “ensure there was never even the appearance of any conflict.”
Mayor Adams denies making any deal with the administration over the criminal case. In December, Adams told Fox 5 New York that Border Czar Tom Homan wanted ICE access at Rikers.
ICE agents previously had a presence at the Rikers Island facility, but they were effectively banned from operating there in 2014 under New York City’s sanctuary laws limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Mastro signed the April 8 executive order, which the lawsuit alleges is a violation of the city charter since Adams delegated the duty to Mastro. In court filings, the council emphasized, “No mayor has ever delegated executive order powers, and no executive order has been signed by anyone but the mayor.”
Mastro called the lawsuit politically motivated.
“This reads less like a lawsuit than a political polemic,” Mastro told Fox 5. “The lawsuit that’s been filed basically concedes that the executive order, on its face, is legal and complies with local law. End of story.”
Mastro said the move would allow ICE and other federal agencies to assist in gang and drug-related investigations. They would not enforce civil immigration cases.
“ICE will only be assisting with criminal investigations, not civil enforcement — meaning they won’t be investigating people for the crime of entering the country illegally,” Mastro said.
On Tuesday, Homan and Adams, along with other federal and local law enforcement partners, held a press conference announcing the indictment of 27 people with ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and splinter group Anti-Tren. Federal authorities have charged them with racketeering, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, and firearms charges in New York.
Twenty-one of the 27 defendants are in federal custody, and Homan said the search is on for the remaining six. Allowing ICE agents on Rikers Island would assist in tracking down violent illegal criminals who are involved in gangs and organized crime, Homan said, especially since New York Police Department already has them in custody.
In a Fox 5 News report on Tuesday’s press conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “This isn’t just street crime—it’s organized racketeering. These defendants wreaked havoc in our communities, trafficking women for sexual exploitation, flooding our streets with drugs, and committing violent crimes with illegal guns.”
