Protesters call for Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Several hundred protesters gathered in lower Manhattan on Sunday to call for Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office.

The demands come amid growing criticism that Adams is beholden to President Donald Trump’s political agenda after the Department of Justice sought to dismiss corruption charges against him in exchange for help with immigration enforcement.

“This is an emergency,” shouted Alicé Nascimento, political director with New York Communities for Change. “The mayor of the most important city in the world is being held hostage by Donald Trump.”

Adams, a Democrat, last week reached an agreement with the administration of Trump, a Republican, which in part includes an executive order to reinstate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the city’s long-plagued Rikers Island jail. On Friday, border czar Tom Homan appeared side by side with Adams to announce the agreement on the TV program "Fox & Friends," where he issued a loud warning to the mayor.

“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’” Homan said.

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon resigned this week after refusing to drop criminal charges against Adams. Several other high-ranking officials joined her.

“We have a mayor who’s compromised … He’s deciding things in his own self-interest instead of the interest of all New Yorkers,” Assemb. Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) said to the crowd of protesters on Sunday.

“He must be removed from office.”

New Yorkers gathered across the street from City Hall holding signs that read: “In America no one is above the law,” and, “Make bribery and corruption illegal again.”

Earlier this month, Adams directed city employees who “reasonably feel threatened” to allow ICE officers into schools, homeless shelters, hospitals and other municipal buildings — despite a decade-old so-called “sanctuary city” law requiring employees to refuse cooperation with ICE in almost every circumstance.

Traci Parks, 64, of Brooklyn, said cooperating with ICE will “terrorize children, separate families, and make people scared.”

Joan Boyle, 85, of Manhattan, agreed. “They’ll be deporting people who shouldn’t even be questioned … They’ll be sending ordinary immigrants home in order to make their numbers look good, and now Eric Adams is opening the door for them,” she said.

Earlier Sunday at Mount Olivet Baptist Church of Hollis, Adams said: “Can I tell you about all the newspapers and the headlines that are saying he will be going soon? Can I tell you that I'm still here?

At the church's Black History Month sermon Sunday, Adams, the city's second Black mayor, resisted criticism while seeking to highlight his administration's achievements in housing and foster care.

"One of your own is the mayor of the City of New York, and as long as Jesus say[s] to me, Eric, you rise, I will continue to rise," he said.

Outside the church, parishioners gave their support to Adams.

Dolores Harrison, a resident of Queens, said critics of the mayor don’t look at the good he has done in helping community residents over the years.

“We’re going to keep praying for our mayor,” she said. “We’re not to judge him, but God is going to lead him.”

Denese Clarke-Nembhard, a Queens resident and Adams supporter, said she hopes the legal process will happen in a fair manner, though she added that she didn’t know what was fair for the mayor.

"But I hope that he is innocent of the charges, and you know, that things go well in the end,” she said.