Mayor eric adams changes course, sticks up for 20-year-old high school student rounded up by ice — after wave of criticism

Mayor Eric Adams belatedly offered support Monday for a Big Apple high schooler rounded up in President Trump’s deportation blitz — reversing his original assertion that the Venezuelan

migrant’s arrest by ICE wouldn’t discourage other migrants from seeking city services. The city’s top lawyer filed a legal brief backing Dylan Lopez Contreras, a 20-year-old Venezuelan

asylum seeker who was detained in a Manhattan courthouse on May 21 after attending a mandatory immigration hearing. Contreras’ arrest drew protests from hundreds of his fellow high school

students last week, as well as a wave of criticism for Adams after he conspicuously declined to question the migrant’s detention. The legal brief sounded the alarm that ICE’s tactics

threaten to deter people from participating in the court system — a key promise of New York City’s sanctuary policies. EXPLORE MORE “The implications threaten to reach well beyond the

immigration arena and reach the countless other matters affecting public welfare that require our residents to appear in court every day,” the brief states. Mayor Eric Adams, in a statement

echoing the brief’s arguments, said Contreras was punished for following the law. “Dylan Lopez Contreras was going through the exact legal proceeding that we encourage new arrivals to go

through in order to be able to work and provide for their families — and even accessed the center that we created for migrants to be able to avoid city shelters and become independent,”

Adams said. But Adams sang a different tune last week when asked by The Post whether Contreras’ arrest would discourage other migrants from going through the court system. “No, I don’t,”

Adams said. A City Hall spokesperson tried to walk back Adams’ initial comments, asserting the mayor was speaking with limited information. Adams has consistently voiced support for most

sanctuary city policies that he maintains will ensure anyone, regardless of immigration status, will continue to call police and respond to court, if ordered. The mayor has also pushed to

roll back certain sanctuary city policies to increase cooperation with ICE. Hizzoner’s openness to reopening a long-shuttered ICE office on Rikers Island and allowing city officials to

collaborate with the feds on civil immigration enforcement coincided with his cozying up to Trump and other MAGA-aligned leaders. Contreras’ immigration case — which is unfolding in

Pennsylvania federal court — potentially puts Adams in the tough spot of appeasing his Trump-friendly allies and assuaging fears of immigrant New Yorkers worried about being unfairly caught

in deportation dragnets. “Dylan has done everything legally necessary to satisfy his immigration process, yet was kidnapped by ICE right in front of his mother after attending his scheduled

immigration court hearing,” said Power Malu, president of compassion and Candice Braun, chief empathy officer of Artists Athletes Activists/ROCC NYC, in a statement. “On the one hand, the

mayor of our sanctuary city is encouraging people to continue using public services and on the other hand he is not willing to stand up and protect our residents from wrongful ICE

apprehensions.”