Explore Open Positions at the Office of the Public Advocate

As Mayor Adams meets with Donald Trump’s incoming deportation czar Tom Homan, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement urging the outgoing President Biden to take immediate steps to protect the immigrant communities in New York from both Donald Trump and Mayor Adams.

“The President has said that Donald Trump represents an existential threat to marginalized people – now, he has to act like it,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “Since Mayor Adams makes it clearer daily that he seems more interested in helping Donald Trump with a dangerous agenda of deportation, it’s clear that vulnerable New Yorkers can’t rely on this Mayor for support – so I’m asking President Biden to use the time and power he has left in order to enact common sense protections. We have a moral mandate to do what we can, with what we have, to stand up for people under threat. Whatever our mayor or Donald Trump believe, immigrant New Yorkers do have rights, and I urge the President to join us in standing up for those rights today.”

The Public Advocate joined immigrant advocacy organizations and elected officials outside City Hall today just ahead of the mayor’s meeting with the deportation czar to stand up for immigrant rights in the face of threats from the incoming president and ambivalence from the mayor. 

Public Advocate Williams also sent a letter to the Biden administration Wednesday urging several actions that the White House can immediately take in order to provide common sense, essential protections against many of the incoming Trump administration’s worst policies and proposals. Those actions include:

Address All Pending Decisions Regarding TPS Designations

• Issue Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and/or Redesignate and Extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for All Eligible Countries.

Ensure DACA Holders and Other Long-time Residents Are Able to Benefit from Current Policies.

• Expedite the Processing of DACA Recipients.
• Expand Legal Pathways and Employment Opportunities for DACA Recipients Who Have Graduated from American Colleges and Universities.
• Protect the Ability of DACA Holders and Others to Travel on Advance Parole

Actions to Safeguard Refugees and Vulnerable Migrants

• Prioritize Adjudication of Pending Asylum Claims.
• Expedite Refugee Arrivals and Provide Flexible, Supplemental Resources to Resettlement Sites to Increase Capacity.
• Protect Children, Prohibit Enforcement of Removal Orders
• Issue an executive order or memo requiring Immigration Services (USCIS) expedite and prompt processing of  Violence Against Women Act

Mayor Adams has recently indicated a willingness to work with the Trump administration on deportation efforts, and often scapegoated migrant New Yorkers for his own failures. He has attempted to pit longtime New Yorkers against migrants who have arrived more recently, and last week falsely declared that migrants do not have Constitutional rights.

As the son of immigrants, in a city of immigrants, the Public Advocate loudly condemned this attitude, saying of the mayor that “His rhetoric is as dangerous to our city as his leadership has been harmful. The mayor has misled the city for years about the cost of aiding asylum seekers, but the cost of his misinformation is clear… With the looming danger of the Trump presidency, and the mayor choosing to mimic rather than condemn it, we have to stand together to defend both the New Yorkers who have little and the ones who have less.”

Read the Public Advocate's letter to the White House here.

“Our Mayor has vowed to abandon NYC’s laws because that’s what’s in his personal interest," said Council Member Alexa Avilés, Chair of the Committee on Immigration. "So, we—the Council and the Public Advocate—must take matters into our own hands, doing what we can to protect the millions of New Yorkers safeguarded by our Sanctuary City status. That’s why I’m standing proudly behind the Public Advocate’s letter today. I urge President Biden to do what he can for the communities under threat from Eric Adams and Donald Trump—which are not just new arrivals, but also long-standing New York residents. Every New Yorker deserves dignity and safety, but every New Yorker will suffer under this right-wing administration. We can’t let a self-serving mayor dismantle our economy, uproot communities, and disregard democracy—it’s time for President Biden to act.”