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New York City Mayor Eric Adams revealed on Tuesday that he is open to meeting with incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan to develop solutions to take on illegal immigrant criminals, and he dismissed criticism from the left, telling critics to "cancel me."
Adams was asked at a press conference about whether he would meet with Homan, who was picked by President-elect Trump to lead the mass deportation operation he intends to launch after he is sworn into office.
Adams stressed the city’s openness to immigrants and emphasized the work being done to help migrants apply for Temporary Protected Status and work authorization, as well as services including case management for migrants. He said it has now seen a 21-week decrease in migrant arrivals.
"But we cannot ignore … the fact that the American people have communicated to us loudly and clearly: We have a broken system. They want to fix, and we need to fix our immigration system," he said.
He said he has reached out to Homan and said he would like to speak to him: "I’m not going to be warring with this administration, I'm going to be working with this administration. President Trump is the president-elect. And whomever he chooses to run his agencies. I'm looking forward to sitting down and see how do we better New York."
"I would like to speak with our border czar and find out what his plans are. Where our common grounds are, we can work together. And I strongly believe, my history is sitting down with those across the aisle with different ways of thinking and sit down and share my ideas," he said. "I believe I have some ideas that could deal with this issue, and we can reach what the American people have been saying to us: secure our borders, address the people who are committing violent acts in our country and make sure that … our citizens are going to be safe."
In another part of the press conference, he said those who are in the country illegally who are otherwise law-abiding "should not be rounded up in the middle of the night."
But he said that it was different for criminal illegal immigrants.
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"Those are the people I am talking about. And I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how are we going to address those who are harming our citizens."
As to his critics from the left on the issue, Adams pointed to past remarks by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Obama, who he said had called for the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants, and brushed off what he said was "cancel culture."
"Well, cancel me, because I'm going to protect the people of this city, and if you come into this country, in this city, and think you're going to harm innocent New Yorkers and innocent migrants and asylum seekers, this is not the mayor you want to be in a city under," he said.
Adams has been sounding the alarm about the impact that the border crisis has had on New York City, including the billions that it has cost the city. He has repeatedly called for additional support from the federal government. He said on Tuesday that the city has so far seen $6.4 billion spent on the migrant crisis.
While New York City is a sanctuary city – meaning local police are not allowed to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to hand over illegal immigrants after they are released from custody – Adams has increasingly backed away from that stance.
He has called for changes that allow those suspected of major crimes to be turned over to ICE, something that is not currently allowed under the sanctuary policies.
Homan, meanwhile, is open to a meeting with Adams.
"I'm willing to meet with him, and I'm willing to meet with anybody to help make their communities safer," Homan said Monday on "America's Newsroom" after being contacted by the Adams administration.
"Prioritization out of the gate is public safety threats; work with us on that. It makes your community safer. It keeps my officers safe. It keeps the community safe. Let's work together and get this done."
Fox News' Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
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