Mayor Eric Adams stood alongside Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in Queens on Tuesday afternoon and charged that much of the crime along Roosevelt Avenue has been orchestrated by “illegal migrants” whom the NYPD and the feds have rooted out.
Adams used the controversial term amidst ongoing ICE raids in New York and around the country that have left many outraged because of the random and forceful nature federal agents have taken people, including immigrants and citizens without criminal records into custody.
“The participation of violent illegal migrants in our city, and one of them was the 18th Street gang, indicating there were violent transnational gang members, a racketeering conspiracy, narcotics and firearms trafficking, extortion, and assault,” Hizzoner said during the June 24 press conference at the 115th Precinct stationhouse in Jackson Heights.
The mayor also thanked the feds for working with the NYPD to remove a gang that, he said, had previously made the Roosevelt Avenue corridor unsafe.
“We zeroed in on them, and we were successful in taking them down with our federal partners, something that I talk about all the time. We’re going to collaborate with our federal partners when it deals with criminal encounters, and we’re using every tool possible,” he added.
Crime decreases on Roosevelt Avenue
The press conference gave Adams and Tisch an opportunity to tout a double-digit decrease in crime along Roosevelt Avenue during a months-long initiative implemented late last year called “Operation Restore Roosevelt.”
Per NYPD stats, since the beginning of 2025, burglaries are down 48%, grand larcenies are down 29.4%, felony assaults are down 28.2%, and robberies are down 26.6%.
“So far this year, there have been zero shootings and no confirmed shots fired. This data is backed by action on the ground. Since the start of the operation, the NYPD has made more than 25 arrests along the corridor. We’ve issued more than 25,000 summonses and shut down dozens of illegal businesses operating in plain sight,” Tisch said.
The NYPD also began cracking down on prostitution out of businesses along Roosevelt Avenue last fall, prompting several protests pushing back against the cleanup effort, arguing that cops primarily targeted immigrants.
Adams also looked to ensure the public that the city was offering sex workers resources in order to alleviate their dependence on selling their bodies.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said that human trafficking was pushed to the side streets where people paid for sex out of parked vehicles, but noted that this issue is also being addressed.
“We had residents contact us, they were telling us that there was illegal prostitution activity that was being done inside of abandoned vehicles that were parked on the side blocks. [We] got that information and immediately acted on it and towed those vehicles,” Daughtry said.
