De Blasio: Trump’s immigration order makes NYC ‘less safe’

“It’s going to make cities less safe, that’s the bottom line,” he said on CNN.

De Blasio added that New York City would sue if Trump tried to take federal dollars away from New York.

“If an attempt is made to do that, we will go to court immediately for an injunction to stop it,” he said.

A key element of Trump’s executive order from Wednesday would force cities and states to cooperate fully with federal immigration officials. It’s aimed at ending so-called “sanctuary cities,” or jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with the feds when it comes to detaining illegal immigrants.

But de Blasio said these kinds of policies allow police to work with immigrants on things like investigating crimes. He said Trump’s order would “destroy that progress” and threaten the safety of everyone.

“Why?” he asked. “New York City has half a million undocumented people. We want them to come forward and work with the police, if they see a crime, if they’re a victim of a crime.”

“If they believe by talking to a police officer they will get deported and be torn apart from their family, they’re not going to work with police,” he said.

He also dismissed the idea that sanctuary cities purposefully don’t work with the feds when it comes to immigrants accused of serious crimes. He said in New York, there are 170 offenses that trigger automatic cooperation with federal officials.

But he did say that immigrants who run a stoplight or commit other less serious crimes aren’t the subject of deportation.

“I believe people should follow the law, I don’t think people should violate our borders, but let’s face it,” he said. This has been, for hundreds of years a challenge for this country, right?”

De Blasio added that New York City would sue if Trump tried to take federal dollars away from New York.

“If an attempt is made to do that, we will go to court immediately for an injunction to stop it,” he said.