City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Wednesday referred to President Donald Trump as "Felon 47" and said he has "threatened the safety of our communities."

"[He is] seeking to tear families apart," Adams said. "We have already seen a chilling effect directly in our neighborhoods here in New York."

Adams was specifically referring to the recent actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed under Trump.


What You Need To Know

  • City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Wednesday said President Donald Trump had "threatened the safety of our communities" and was "seeking to tear families apart" after the ICE raids that took place Tuesday

  • The Council and the New York Immigration Coalition are partnering to announce the allocation of $2 million for nonprofit organizations, as well as a free interpreters bank offering language assistance

  • Some speakers in attendance also had words of criticism for Mayor Eric Adams' silence since the raids, and for assisting the Department of Homeland Security with one of the raids

She said Trump's efforts in the nine days since he was sworn in — including an attempt to overturn birthright citizenship, immigration raids and the attempted freezing-then-reinstating of federal aid programs — are anti-democratic.  

That's why she says the Council is partnering with the New York Immigration Coalition to announce two initiatives. One will allocate $2 million to more than 60 nonprofit organizations to assist with legal support, rapid response, help lines and critical training.

The second will create a free New York City interpreters bank to assist non-English speakers with a host of services.

"Think about how hard it is to navigate your daily life without speaking the most common language in the city," Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said. "Now think about interacting with city agencies, or complicated legal structures, without proper interpretation."

Awawdeh says the ICE activity in the city Tuesday — during which new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was along for the ride — was about scaring people.

"It's unfortunate that we have the DHS secretary cosplaying as law enforcement in this moment and trying to rile up and create more fear in our communities," Awawdeh said. And he's disappointed by the response on the issue from Mayor Eric Adams, who's been out of the public eye due to an unspecified illness.

"Today the New York City Council is wholeheartedly stepping forward into the vacuum that the mayor has left with his silence on these attacks," Awawdeh said.

The mayor has had no public events for days, but he has been in touch with the Trump administration, according to Noem.

"The mayor's been fantastic," she said in an interview with CBS. "In fact, I talked to him on the phone four or five times [the night before the raid]."

Deputy Speaker of the City Council Diana Ayala says that "isn't normal."

"We didn't see this under the de Blasio administration at all," Ayala said. "He was vehemently against any interactions with the Trump administration."

"But with this mayor, what he has shown is that he's very creative in finding loopholes in the law that allow him to do things that are unethical but still legal," Ayala added.

A spokesperson for the mayor said it "would be weird if the mayor didn't" communicate with the administration and with DHS on something like this. The spokesperson also pointed out that the mayor's involvement in the raids was limited to one specific arrest yesterday of a man with gang connections and a dangerous criminal history.