Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom providing little details about how the city’s plans to respond to potential mass deportations under the Trump administration on Monday.

“We’re talking to our lawyers right now,” Williams-Isom said. “We’re in conjunction with all people in the administration but like I said to you, I think it’s probably wise to keep some of those plans to ourselves in this period of time as opposed to talking about it because we want to make sure we’re keeping people safe.” 

Williams-Isom sat down with NY1 to talk about the city’s ongoing handling of arriving migrants and the city’s plans to protect immigrants.

What You Need To Know

  • Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom sat down exclusively with NY1 to talk about the incoming Trump administration and the ongoing influx of migrants into the city

  • Williams-Isom said the city is preparing for immigration policies under President-elect Donald Trump and vowed to protect immigrants

  • Williams-Isom also looked back on some of the choices the city made at the height of the crisis 

“There’s been a lot of noise around this issue. But in the end, people can be proud of what we have done as New Yorkers and how we have protected people and I think we’re going to continue to protect people,” she said.  

As of this week, more than 223,000 migrants have arrived in the city, but the populations of those in care have been decreasing for 19-straight-weeks. 

As part of those efforts, the city this week will try to keep migrant families with young children in the same shelter after 60 days.

The change comes as the city was forced to bus children to their new schools after families were relocated far away.

Williams-Isom touted the city’s implementation of shelter limit policies and other controversial decisions as a hard-decision that needed to be made. 

“We were really between a rock and a hard place and I think we all feel grateful and proud with how we’ve been able to manage this crisis thus far,” she said.  

As of Monday, more than 58,000 migrants are in the city’s care, down from a high of 69,000, leading to closures of emergency sites including on Randall’s Island. 

“What we’re really looking at are some of the places where the lease is coming up and so trying to be smart about where the opportunity is to save money,” she said.

Williams-Isom said the city has spent over $6 billion on housing and feeding migrants. 

But she notes the city has seen savings despite criticisms over debit cards and pricey no-bid contracts. 

“The thing that cost the most in this crisis is housing people,” she said. “I don’t know that there would have been any other strategy, whether it was around food, security, and certainly there were a lot of lessons learned at a time when we were building the plane and flying it at the same time.” 

As for the city’s decision to resettle migrants upstate and use controversial vendor DocGo, she had this to say: “Clearly it would’ve been great if we could’ve used somebody who had more background in case management and working with this population.” 

“I think that I would’ve done it again because it’s an opportunity for the state to share in that responsibility. It sure did get people fired up, but maybe in a way good. Maybe people were like ‘Oh my god, look what New York City is going to,’” she added.