“Four hundred thousand of our residents are right now in urgent risk of deportation,” the socialist lamented on MSNBC “The Weekend,” adding fewer than 200 of them received access to free lawyers last year.
The city’s 2026 budget, passed in June, already includes $54.5 million to fight deportation orders in court on the taxpayer’s dime – “more than any other major city in America,” Mayor Eric Adams has said.
Mamdani aims to blow that amount out of the water, reiterating a promise buried in his campaign platform, under his “Trump-Proofing NYC” tenet.
“A cornerstone of our campaign is to increase funding for those very legal defense services by more than $100 million so that we can ensure we’re taking every step we can to keep New Yorkers safe, to keep New Yorkers together, and to show the world that they are welcome in this city,” he said.
To do that, Mamdani vowed to beef up headcount in the city’s Law Department by 200, without providing more specifics.
But critics said this is outrageous to those who are documented and trying to immigrate legally – who not only have to pay their own legal fees, but since last year are actually hit with a $600 “asylum program fee” which goes to processing asylum seekers’ applications.
“Anybody who is present in the United States without status can be removed,” said Candice Ackermann, a lawyer who represents highly-skilled immigrants” The thing is that in many previous administrations, they were not really strict about that – or they weren’t seeking out those people, but that is what the law says.”
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Immigrants end up in deportation proceedings if they either entered the US illegally or entered legally but were since convicted of a crime.
Since it began in 2022, NYC has spent an estimated $12 billion on the asylum seeker crisis, which besides legal help includes shelter, food and other services.
Immigrants end up in deportation proceedings if they either entered the US illegally or entered legally but were since convicted of a crime.
“New York is in a fiscal crisis, and Mamdani wants to rip another $100 million from taxpayers to bankroll deportation defense, rewarding lawbreaking while seniors, classrooms, sanitation, and public safety go without. It spits in the face of every immigrant who played by the rules, and I will fight this giveaway with everything I’ve got,” ripped Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“It is unfair to taxpayers and to those who played by the rules to come here legally, and enough is enough,” added Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa.
It’s unclear where the additional $100 million funds would come from. Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to any of The Post’s questions.
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