Border czar Tom Homan met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday in a sign of how the Trump administration has its eyes on the country’s biggest city to carry out its immigration enforcement plans.

Faith Ringgold painted a vibrant mural at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island. A few years later, it was whitewashed.

Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Presidents Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors are resigning one after the other after the other, refusing to carry out a Trump appointee’s orders — and Mayor Eric Adams’ fate hangs in the balance. Just a day after Adams’ lawyer declared victory, saying the Turkish corruption charges were gone and would never come back, the acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan dropped a bombshell: She would not dismiss Adams’ case and would resign instead. Then Danielle Sassoon — a Republican who once clerked for conservative Saint Antonin Scalia in the Supreme Court and was tapped by the Trump administration to briefly lead the vaunted “Sovereign District” — dropped another bombshell: The mayor’s legal team did offer cooperation with federal immigration enforcement if the feds would drop his case. That “amounted to a quid pro quo,” Sassoon wrote, “indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Adams’ attorney Alex Spiro denied the claim, saying “the idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie.” “We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us,” he said. Adams has once again put himself in a position he’s become comfortable with: close to President Donald Trump. The current and former president repeated “there was no quid pro quo” so much during his first impeachment that the phrase earned its own Wikipedia page. But Adams’ denial was complicated by the fact that he sat down with Trump’s “border czar” Thursday and assented to override local “sanctuary city” laws to allow ICE to work on Rikers Island. (More on that below.) “They’re in alignment with me,” Adams told PIX11, referring to the Trump administration when it comes to “criminal aspects” of the migrant issue. How can there be coercion, Adams suggested, when he’s been saying the same thing since 2022? He’s also in alignment with Trump appointee Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general in Washington, who fired back at Sassoon in a memo that backed up all of Adams’ legal arguments and complaints about the case. It was an “extremely aggressive” case that was brought out of pure ambition, wrote Bove, who added that prosecutors misled Adams on whether he was a target, then baited him to talk about the case when they’d already decided to charge him. Insurance Hitting Uber Riders in the Wallet. New York State has some of the most onerous and expensive insurance laws for rideshare trips in the country and Uber riders are paying the cost. In December 2024, 25% of rider fares on average went toward government-mandated commercial insurance for Uber rideshare trips. Lawsuit abuse and the litigation environment in New York are driving up costs of everything even more, including insurance premiums. Learn More. WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany, speaking at the Choose Healthy Life Summit. WHERE’S ERIC? In New York City, appearing on “FOX & Friends” and then participating in Ethnic Media Engagement with “Hamodia.” QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Nomi and I have started a really lovely relationship, just in time for Valentine’s Day. We’ve known each other for a long time and are very kindred souls.” — Former Mayor Bill de Blasio texted the New York Post about his new relationship with progressive activist Nomiki Konst, adding a red heart emoji. CUOMO’S BILLS: Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is being pressed to cut off taxpayer financing of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legal defense for an ongoing lawsuit by a former member of his State Police detail. The push highlights Cuomo’s still-unsettled legal picture following his resignation in 2021. The controversies that drove him from office will likely be fodder for Cuomo’s potential Democratic opponents if he runs for mayor. The former governor has denied any wrongdoing. Cuomo has used a state law that enables his attorneys’ fees to be paid for by New Yorkers. So far, more than $16 million in two cases has been spent on private legal representation for Cuomo and his former advisers in two sexual harassment cases. Charlotte Bennett, a former Cuomo administration aide, dropped her lawsuit against him in December. (Cuomo has signaled he will sue her for defamation.) A suit filed by the woman known as Tropper 1 remains active. Anti-sexual harassment advocate Erica Vladimer and Common Cause Executive Susan Lerner urged DiNapoli in a recent letter to no longer pay Cuomo’s legal bills in the Trooper 1 case and audit how money has been spent in both cases Cuomo’s defense uses tactics “that go far beyond” the law’s parameters for a necessary defense, including subpoenas that sought records from a gynecologist and family therapist, they wrote in the letter. “Mr. Cuomo has consistently used taxpayer dollars to fund legal tactics that go far beyond any definition of reasonable and necessary defense activities, including subpoenaing more than 30 non-parties,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by Playbook. Meanwhile, a separate letter from the government watchdog Reinvent Albany, accuses Cuomo of trying to “intimidate and humiliate two of the women accusing him of sexual harassment.” In a statement to Playbook, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi criticized Vladimer and noted she had recently been sent a document preservation notice as part of the defamation case against Bennett. “We are following the law as written and what Vladimer fails to disclose in her press release disguised as a letter is that she herself has been asked to preserve her communications with Charlotte Bennett and her lawyers because of serious concerns from our counsels that Vladimir has been working with them to interfere with Governor Cuomo’s defense,” Azzoardi said. “The cases Vladimer references have either been completely dropped or are imploding because the truth is there is no truth to any of these claims.” He also accused Vladimer of having “hoodwinked self-described ‘good government groups’” into being used “as tools in this self-interested effort to interfere with ongoing litigation. “[It] should give them pause,” Azzopardi said, “but it probably won’t.” And he defended the strategy: “As is a matter of public record, the only reason so many third-party depositions are needed is that Trooper 1’s legal team included accusations that had nothing to do with her own claims. That is why a judge ruled the depositions were necessary and appropriate to defend against those claims.” (Vladimer, in turn, said she is living “rent-free” in Cuomo’s head.) DiNapoli’s office argued its role in disbursing the money to Cuomo is a fiduciary function and a matter of following the law. DiNapoli was sued last year by the former governor when the comptroller refused to pay legal fees associated with a stalled open records request to Attorney General Letitia James’ office. “We are currently fighting his lawsuit over that denial in Supreme Court,” DiNapoli spokesperson Matt Sweeney said. “We cannot, however, overrule the legal judgment of the individual’s attorney or the federal magistrate judge who is responsible for enforcing the limits in federal discovery.” — Nick Reisman With a new administration in place, how will governors work with the federal government and continue to lead the way on issues like AI, health care, economic development, education, energy and climate? Hear from Gov. Jared Polis, Gov. Brian Kemp and more at POLITICO’s Governors Summit on February 20. RSVP today. THEY WANT ADAMS OUT: Some of Adams’ fellow Democrats are demanding his ouster amid deepening legal entanglements they say compromise his ability to serve New York City. While the criticism by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was unsurprising, a push by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado was less expected, if only because Delgado broke from Gov. Kathy Hochul. “New York City deserves a Mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the President. Mayor Adams should step down,” Hochul’s No. 2 posted Thursday evening on X. Delgado had previously split from the governor when he called on former President Joe Biden to abandon his campaign for reelection while Hochul stayed by Biden’s side. The governor, however, distanced herself from her No. 2’s remark. “Governor Hochul is carefully reviewing these new allegations,” Hochul spokesperson Anthony Hogrebe told Playbook. “Lieutenant Governor Delgado does not now and has not ever spoken on behalf of this administration.” Ocasio-Cortez responded to the letter from Sasson alleging Adams’ attorneys “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo” to Trump’s Justice Department. “This is explosive,” the progressive standard bearer posted on X. “Mayor Adams is putting the City of New York and its people at risk in exchange for escaping charges. As long as Trump wields this leverage over Adams, the city is endangered. We cannot be governed under coercion. If Adams won’t resign, he must be removed.” Hochul on MSNBC on Thursday pointedly did not rule out removing Adams but said she wants to consult with other New York leaders. “The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she said. “I’ve got to do it smart, what’s right and I’m consulting with other leaders in government right now.” The mayor has maintained he did not break the law and vowed to continue to serve New Yorkers. “Hidden beneath all the shocking headlines full of rumors and accusations, all the innuendos and insinuations, the real news is that the women and men of my administration have delivered for the working people of New York,” Adams said in a speech Tuesday, “just like I promised we would.” — Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman ADAMS’ EO ON ICE: The mayor committed during a sitdown Thursday with Trump border czar Tom Homan to returning federal immigration agents to the Rikers Island jail complex. In a statement blasted out hours after the meeting, Adams indicated he would issue an executive order to override local “sanctuary city” laws that otherwise prohibit ICE from operating within city facilities. “We are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island — as was the case for 20 years,” the mayor said. “But now, instead, ICE agents would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs.” The closed-door confab was the first-mile marker in a new and precarious era in the mayor’s political career. With each nudge toward more deportations from Trump officials — who hold the fate of the mayor’s criminal case in their hands — Adams gets further from his Democratic political base as he seeks reelection in June. “Sanctuary city” laws strengthened by Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, had removed ICE officers from the city’s jail system. The laws otherwise limit cooperation between the NYPD, the Department of Correction and ICE. Some who helped pass those policies immediately condemned Adams. “We did that specifically because of the level of abuse that was happening, and people who were innocent of crimes were being turned over to ICE,” City Council Member Diana Ayala told Playbook. “So this is really concerning. It’s not surprising with this mayor.” Read more from POLITICO’s Joe Anuta, Emily Ngo and Cris Seda Chabrier. More from the city: — The City Council approved two bills to address sexual violence in city jails, following hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse on Rikers Island. (Gothamist) — The city financed nearly 28,000 income-restricted homes in 2024 as Adams touted record levels of production for seniors and formerly homeless individuals. (POLITICO Pro) NOT NOW, NOT EVER: Hochul made clear Thursday she’s refusing to comply with the extradition order for a New York doctor facing criminal charges in Louisiana for prescribing abortion medication via telehealth. During a late afternoon press conference, Hochul said her team received the order just before 1:45 p.m. She insisted that shield laws — created in the wake of Roe v. Wade to protect abortion providers — supersede Louisiana state law. “I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,” Hochul said in prepared remarks. “Not now, not ever. I want to be very clear on that.” She noted that law enforcement received notice that certain warrants from other states are no longer enforceable in New York. “Anyone who pulls over an individual that is involved in a situation, or a doctor who has been protected under our laws is told you are not to cooperate and enforce this extradition,” Hochul said. “I want to be clear that we have taken all the steps we can to protect this doctor and to continue allowing her to continue to practice.” — Katelyn Cordero NOT EASY BEING GREEN LIGHT: Local Republican officials who administer motor vehicle offices are cheering the Trump DOJ’s lawsuit against New York over the law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola has long opposed the measure, known as the Green Light Law, and was among the officials who blasted the effort in 2007 when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer pressed for it. Among Merola’s compatriots at the time: an Erie County official named Kathy Hochul. “She stood right with us because it was the right thing to do,” Merola told Playbook on Thursday. “Once she got in there she looked the other way. But she was right in our corner.” Hochul changed her position on the measure after she was elected lieutenant governor. And she’s now in the position of defending the law against the Trump administration. The governor’s office slammed Attorney General Pam Bondi’s lawsuit as “worthless” and “publicity-driven.” Hochul got reinforcement a day later from Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus Chair Michaelle Solages. “The DOJ’s interference is not about legal principles — it’s about pushing a political narrative that disregards the needs of real people,” Solages said. — Nick Reisman BORDER SECURITY: The union that represents State Police troopers told lawmakers Thursday that an expanded deployment to the Canadian border needs sufficient resources. New York State Troopers PBA President Charlie Murphy in testimony to the Legislature budget panel on public protection said the agency cannot be “under-resourced” in other parts of New York and “asked to do more with less.” “The fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent near the Canadian border in January only underscores the heightened risks of expanded duties during this uncertain time,” he said. Hochul wants $8 million in the state budget to deploy more troopers near the Canadian border in order to cut down on smuggling. But PBA officials have warned state lawmakers that recruitment of new troopers is a problem and Hochul’s proposal to raise the retirement age might not be enough to solve it. “As alarming as that is, these numbers tell only a part of the story,” Murphy said. “PBA members face a crisis of low morale that threatens to only further challenge any retention and recruitment efforts.” — Nick Reisman CDPAP UPDATE: State officials will report progress today in the controversial change to a home health program. The state today plans to report that 50,000 personal assistants and 50,000 consumers have started or completed the process of switching over to the new fiscal intermediary in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, known by the acronym CDPAP. The change has been vehemently opposed and become a political headache for Hochul. But state officials want to show the transition has been smooth. “Our top priority in this transition is supporting CDPAP home care users and caregivers throughout New York State — and the transition remains on track for completion by April 1,” Health Commissioner James McDonald said. — Nick Reisman FROZEN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY: Rep. Elise Stefanik’s confirmation to become the United Nations ambassador has been in limbo over concerns her vacancy would imperil President Donald Trump’s agenda in the House. POLITICO reports that Senate Republicans have kept the confirmation on hold so House Speaker Mike Johnson has a key vote in the narrowly divided chamber. “The concern is … obviously the situation in the House and how narrow the majority is,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a brief interview Thursday. “I think they’re trying to figure out how to coordinate and time it all.” The field to replace Stefanik in the House, meanwhile, has been frozen while local Republican leaders await the confirmation vote. New York Republicans want Stefanik’s nomination to move forward so her vacancy triggers a special election in the rural upstate district she’s represented for a decade. Republican consultant Dave Catalfamo said GOP lawmakers should do everything they can to hasten a vote. “America really needs Elise Stefanik at the UN and if leadership was smart they would focus on an energy and immigration bill in order for that process to move forward faster,” he said. — Jordain Carney, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Nick Reisman — The top state prison official said inmates never controlled parts of an Erie County facility during a lockdown incident. (Buffalo News) — A Texas judge fined a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas in one of the first challenges to “shield laws” enacted in Democratic-controlled states where abortion is legal. (AP) New York residents already shoulder some of the nation’s highest auto insurance costs, paying an average of $3,840 a year for full coverage. Similarly, the mandatory cost of rideshare insurance per trip in New York is among the highest in the country. One reason behind this is the $1.25 million in liability coverage when a passenger is in the vehicle, which is 25 times the liability requirement for personal vehicles. Insurance premiums continue to rise in part because of the litigation environment in New York. Lawsuit fraud and abuse drives up costs for everything, including insurance rates. Uber is pushing for commonsense legislative changes that keep all trips covered while bringing down the cost of trips. MAKING MOVES: Vedika Gopal, formerly account director on the Campaigns and Creative Services team at BerlinRosen, is joining Brad Lander’s mayoral campaign as political director. MEDIAWATCH: Cale G. Weissman has joined The Real Deal as managing director. He was previously a freelance reporter and editor-in-chief of Modern Retail. WHAT THE KIDS ARE READING: A bunch of New York political figures have written children’s books. (City & State)

Border czar’ Tom Homan calls the New York City mayor’s vow a ‘great first step’ on ‘The Ingraham Angle’ as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration.

New York Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday met with border czar Tom Homan and federal officials for a closed-door meeting to discuss illegal immigration.

After meeting with the White House border czar on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams says he agreed to allow ICE agents onto Rikers Island to find violent criminals.

After meeting with the White House border czar on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams says he agreed to allow ICE agents onto Rikers Island to find violent criminals.

The executive order seems to get around New York City’s sanctuary laws designed to prevent cooperation with the enforcement of federal immigration law.

Ramel Powell, 38 died around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday inside the Otis Bantum Correctional Facility within the city’s most notorious lockup, according to the Department of Correction.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he will sign an executive order allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Rikers Island, the city's largest jail. CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez has more.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has announced plans to issue an executive order allowing federal immigration authorities to operate on Rikers Island. FOX 5 NY's Briella Tomassetti has the details.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he met with President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on Thursday to prepare for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to resume operations on Rikers Island,