During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) stated that he wants violent criminals deported, but someone who has Tren de Aragua gang tattoos wouldn’t fall under this “because we’ve got to also ensure that we’re not violating the laws of our land. And the mere fact someone is wearing a gang tattoo, which is an identifiable marker of this gang, is not enough to say, okay, you have a gang tattoo, now you must be removed.”
Adams said that during his conversation with incoming Border Czar Tom Homan, there wasn’t a strict definition of what constituted a violent criminal, and “Tom and I both sat down, and we both agree on violent individuals should not remain in our country. We have laws here in the city on how that could be handled. My legal team is going to sit down with his legal team to make the determination if an executive order can change that. One of the things he would like to have is…access to Rikers Island. That’s the jail in our city. The law that was passed under the previous administration said that no ICE officer…can be in any governmental building. There are exceptions to that. We’re looking at those exceptions. That’s my core issue. I’ve said it prior to the election. We can’t allow people to come into the country or the city committing violent acts, and those numbers who are doing it, we need to address that. And I’m happy to have a partner in Tom, to see, how do we address that in a real way.”
Host Martha MacCallum then asked, “So are gang tattoos that are TDA enough to get someone removed in that first group?”
Adams answered, “No, it’s not. No, it’s not. And — because we’ve got to also ensure that we’re not violating the laws of our land. And the mere fact someone is wearing a gang tattoo, which is an identifiable marker of this gang, is not enough to say, okay, you have a gang tattoo, now you must be removed. But what we should be doing at our border, we could be making that determination, are we going to allow you to come in? We’re allowing people to come in — think about this for a moment — we’re allowing people to come in without a sponsor, without any employment, and we’re telling them, you can’t work. So what are they going to do? We’re creating a pipeline of criminality by creating these terrible [criteria.]”
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