Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday that he does not anticipate President Trump calling in the National Guard and military to quell protests in New York City over his immigration crackdown, as he did in Los Angeles over the past several days.
In contrast, leading Democratic primary contenders former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani outlined on June 10 exactly how they would counter Trump’s sending in the troops to stymie protests in the five boroughs.
The differing stances come in response to Trump sending 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to LA to rein in four days of protests over his immigration authorities significantly ramping up their actions to detain undocumented immigrants over the protestations of California elected officials. The mostly peaceful protests have at times erupted into violent clashes, with protesters burning vehicles and briefly shutting down LA’s 101 highway, and police using tear gas and flash bang grenades to control the crowds.
Hizzoner, during his weekly press briefing, told reporters that he does not “foresee” the protests escalating to the point where military-level intervention would be necessary. That is due, he said, to local law enforcement in the Big Apple having the capacity to handle such protests.
“New York is, unlike other cities, our infrastructure, our manpower, just whatever agencies that we have, you see that it is the largest in the country, from FDNY to the NYPD,” Adams said. “We know what we have to do to keep the city safe. And if there’s ever a need to go beyond the manpower that we have, there’s other ways you do it before you have to come with a look of a military operation.”
While the mayor insists that his administration follows the city’s sanctuary laws by not collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on civil matters, he has continuously said they are working together on criminal investigations involving undocumented immigrants.
He has also shied away from criticizing Trump’s immigration crackdown even as it has ramped up over the past couple of weeks, with ICE intercepting and arresting migrants at mandatory hearings inside immigration courts.
Adams has faced accusations that his willingness to work with Trump on immigration enforcement stems from the Justice Department moving to drop his federal corruption case — a motion officially granted by a federal judge in early April.
Cuomo and Mamdani: Trump’s actions ‘authoritarian’
However, Cuomo, the frontrunner in the June 24 Democratic primary, and Mamdani, who is polling in an increasingly closer second place, respectively cast Trump sending troops to tamp down the protests in LA as “unconstitutional” and “authoritarianism.” The two leading candidates have clashed over who would be more effective at countering Trump’s aggressive policies and actions toward the city.
Cuomo, in a Tuesday statement, alleged that Trump is manufacturing chaos in LA to create a pretext for further escalating his mass deportation push accross the country.
“Trump wants Americans to believe that Democratic cities are home to violent illegal immigrants and out-of-control activists, and that therefore the unconstitutional and thuggish actions of ICE officials are somehow justified,” Cuomo said.
The former governor, who resigned in 2021 under a cloud of scandal, is attempting a political comeback. He proposed a six-point plan to prepare the city for a similar crackdown.
The plan includes working with protesters to locate specific areas for peaceful demonstrations; asembling a team of lawyers to defend those unlawfully targetted by ICE; ensuring the NYPD is “pre-deployed” when protests begin; having Gov. Kathy Hochul keep the National Guard on standby to get ahead of Trump calling it into action; directing community leaders to inform the public of the protests’ purpose; and deploying “legal monitors” to ensure the NYPD follows the city’s sanctuary laws.
Mamdani, during his own Tuesday news conference, said he would counter Trump sending in the troops by hiring for over 200 city lawyer positions that have sat vacant since before the coronavirus pandemic.
Furthermore, he said he would work with the governor to take legal action against the Trump administration, just as California Gov. Gavin Newsom did on Monday, and put $200 million in funding toward providing more legal assistance to migrants facing the threat of deportation.
The Democratic socialist Assembly member said he would also work to amass $10 billion by raising taxes on the wealthy to “Trump-proof” the city’s budget against the president, using the threat of federal funding cuts as leverage to bend the city to his will.
Mamdani also took aim at Adams for being open to collaborating with ICE.
“What we deserve is a mayor who will end this policy of collaboration between our police department and ICE,” he said. “One who will ensure that the days of arresting a pastor peacefully observing the arrest of migrants at Federal Plaza will come to an end. One who will stand up unabashedly for sanctuary city policies.”
