Mayor Adams Joins Police Raid, In search of to Expose a Migrant Crime Ring

A day after Mayor Eric Adams repeated his message that the migrant disaster would destroy New York Metropolis, he appeared intent on proving his level.

Mr. Adams, a former police captain, placed on a bulletproof vest with a Fendi scarf tucked beneath it on Monday and accompanied an early-morning police raid within the Bronx, tied to a significant theft ring the place lots of the contributors have been believed to be latest migrants.

Police officers referred to as it the “largest robbery pattern plaguing the city,” with a bunch of thieves on mopeds or scooters snatching cellphones and purses in at the least 62 incidents, most involving feminine victims.

The police stated the thieves have been “migrants who have recently arrived in the United States,” and who “predominantly live in the migrant shelter system.”

Mr. Adams’s participation, promoted by the Police Division’s social media account, amplified the notion that the surge of migrants was wreaking havoc on the town. However critics, together with immigration advocates, referred to as the raid a political gimmick and stated it was a troubling escalation of Mr. Adams’s xenophobic rhetoric towards migrants over the past yr.

“His most recent stunt with the N.Y.P.D. sends the wrong kind of message to New Yorkers about our newest arrivals and incites fear of police among asylum seekers,” stated Murad Awawdeh, government director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

Nonetheless, the mayor’s police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, stated at a information convention on Monday that “a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city.”

Late final month, a police officer and a lieutenant sustained minor accidents after being attacked in Occasions Sq. by a bunch of males who, in accordance with a regulation enforcement official, have been latest migrants who lived at city-provided shelters.

And Mr. Adams, a Democrat coming into his third yr in workplace with a dismal approval ranking, has repeatedly thrown himself into the nationwide debate over the migrant disaster. He appeared on Monday to welcome a chance to indicate that he was holding migrants who commit crimes accountable.

“Generals lead from the front,” Mr. Adams stated at a information convention.

The raid was carried out on the residence of Victor Parra, 30, a Venezuelan accused of coordinating the robberies. The police stated they consider that Mr. Parra entered the nation final yr and recruited latest migrants who nonetheless dwell in shelters.

Officers found 22 stolen telephones on the residence, Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives, stated on the information convention. Mr. Parra was not residence, and there’s a warrant out for his arrest.

In textual content messages on the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mr. Parra would inform his crew what kind of telephones he was searching for, then textual content the group, “‘I have money, I’m available, go get ‘em,’” Chief Kenny stated. Mr. Parra paid between $300 and $600 for each stolen cellphone and gave them to an confederate who hacked into the cellphone homeowners’ financial institution accounts, Kenny stated.

The migrant disaster has offered an unlimited problem for Mr. Adams. The mayor has blamed finances cuts to libraries and different key metropolis providers on the town’s excessive prices of caring for migrants and said last September that the migrant crisis would destroy the city.

On Monday, Mr. Adams tried to reassure New Yorkers that the overwhelming majority of migrants comply with the regulation.

“A small number of people are breaking the law and having a huge impact on our public safety, and that is why we zeroed in on them,” Mr. Adams stated.

It isn’t identified what number of crimes have been dedicated by latest migrants, but it surely doesn’t seem that they’ve contributed to a extreme improve in crime. Felonies stay decrease in 2024 than final yr, and petty and grand larcenies are principally unchanged, in accordance with police records.

But in a nationwide tv interview on Sunday with CBS, Mr. Adams was requested if he stood by his feedback that the migrant disaster would destroy New York Metropolis. “Without a doubt,” he stated and continued his pleas for extra federal support for cities.

The message appeared to resonate with a bunch of Republican elected officers who gathered in Times Square on Monday to attract consideration to the latest assault that the police stated was dedicated by migrants. The officers referred to as for the town to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport these accountable.

When Mr. Adams was requested if he ought to dial again his rhetoric on migrants as a result of it may damage President Biden, he stated that it was his job to struggle on behalf of New Yorkers.

“This is not anti-Biden,” he stated. “There are failures on all sides of the aisle.”

Basil Smikle, director of the Public Coverage Program at Hunter Faculty, stated he couldn’t recall both of Mr. Adams’s latest predecessors, Invoice de Blasio or Michael R. Bloomberg, happening an identical police raid. He believed that Mr. Adams was in all probability attempting to bolster his tough-on-crime picture after a political defeat final week in a showdown with the City Council over two criminal justice bills.

“I think the timing is really important here — he’s trying to show solidarity with the Police Department in the wake of the overriding of his veto,” Mr. Smikle stated.