NEW YORK (PIX11) -- New York City's "sanctuary city" status is coming under the microscope following the attack on police officers in Times Square, with several of the suspects being migrants.
Both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams opened the door to modifying New York's sanctuary city status. However, this comes with its own set of challenges, and the migrants involved in this particular case may face deportation anyway despite existing local law.
Being a sanctuary city means the NYPD generally does not cooperate with immigration authorities.
"Those who break our laws, we need to re-examine the laws that prevent us from deporting them," Adams said.
"I think that's absolutely something that should be looked at," Hochul echoed.
The logic behind being having a sanctuary city, is that frequently police will need the cooperation of undocumented individuals who witness or are victims of crimes-- without fear they will be deported in the process.
However, Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor's chief of staff, on Thursday said the sanctuary city local law is specifically about not cooperating with federal authorities in prosecuting immigration violations. She said helping with specific federal crimes has never stopped.
"If the federal authorities are able to get a warrant for the arrest of these individuals, we are allowed to work with them and participate with that," she said.
So far, those who have been arrested for attacking the officers have been released without bail.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office confirms bail was not requested, and this was at the discretion of the Manhattan district attorney. The main reason given was that the district attorney's office has to look at a lot of individuals and a lot of surveillance video to build a case before it will be ready to bring charges.
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