The Adams administration recently released a new directive on how New York City workers should deal with ICE agents.

The directive was sent out on Jan. 13 and applies to all city-owned buildings. It instructs all city employees to cooperate if they feel unsafe, allowing ICE to enter and make arrests.

The directive was met with outrage from state lawmakers, immigrants and New Yorkers alike.

In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams’ Office wrote a message which read, “We are responsible for safeguarding the well-being of our city staff, which is why we have directed city employees to not put themselves in harm’s way during federal immigration enforcement interactions.”

Step nine of the memo states that if “you reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety, you should give the officer the information they have asked for or let them enter the site.”

Adams emphasized compliance with ICE.

Even at private hospitals such as NYU Langone, the instructions given to employees are clear: “it is illegal to intentionally protect a person who is in the United States unlawfully from detention. You should not try to actively help a person avoid being found by ICE.”

This has already begun causing fear among immigrant communities, leading to students increasingly being absent from schools along with the avoidance of hospitals.

“Our own school chancellor is telling us that 5% of our students are not coming to school any longer. We know in individual schools that is up to 20% absentee,” assemblymember Zohran Mamdani said.

“We are already seeing that patients are avoiding care because they don’t know if they are safe in hospital settings,” Dr. Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Kolod, Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro board chair, said.

Not only does this directive instill feelings of uncertainty, but critics also warn that it violates the city’s sanctuary laws.

Sanctuary laws make it so that federal civil immigration officers cannot force local governments to assist with immigration enforcement.

As for NYC’s specific sanctuary policy, city workers do not have to give immigration authorities access to city properties such as hospitals to schools unless armed with judicial warrants.

New York State Sen. Andrew Gounardes is committed to passing a bill that would standardize how civil servants interact with ICE.

“The only time they should be coordinating with them is in the presence of a signed judicial warrant. That should be the standard for NYC and for all of New York state,” he said.

The City Council speaker said the council is considering all possible legal avenues to try to reverse the memo and hold the Adams administration accountable.

Sanctuary cities were created with immigrants searching for a haven in mind.

However, with deportation numbers continuing to rise, including at least 100 arrests since President Donald Trump took office and Adams’ memo, NYC’s stance on immigration policies appears to be shifting.

The Trump administration has already filed a lawsuit against officials in the sanctuary city of Chicago for not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

Given recent trends, a similar situation could arise in NYC soon.