NEW YORK — The City Council empowered itself Thursday to sue Mayor Adams over his decision to let ICE agents operate on Rikers Island, arguing the move is “the poisonous fruit” of a deal the mayor has been accused of making with President Trump’s administration to get his corruption case dropped.

In a nearly unanimous voice vote, the chamber passed a resolution giving Speaker Adrienne Adams the authority to sue the mayor on behalf of the entire Council over the executive order the city issued earlier this week to allow ICE agents to set up an office on Rikers.

The executive order says Adams’ administration will only permit ICE to pursue criminal enforcement investigations on Rikers targeting undocumented immigrants accused of serious offenses like murder and rape, leaving a prohibition on civil immigration enforcement on the island intact.

But the Council resolution, penned by the speaker, alleges Trump’s administration “cannot be trusted to limit their actions to criminal enforcement,” pointing to recent instances in which ICE has detained and deported innocent people, even U.S. citizens.

To that end, the resolution says the executive order could stand to violate a 2014 sanctuary city law that kicked ICE off Rikers by outlawing civil immigration enforcement on the island.

The resolution also says the mayor, with the executive order, is flouting conflict of interest laws prohibiting public servants from “taking official action for personal gain, such as the dismissal of criminal charges,” a reference to how the Trump Justice Department killed his corruption case last week after pressing him to assist Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda.

“The public record demonstrates that Mayor Adams only changed his mind on this issue and announced that he wanted to open an office for federal immigration authorities as part of a corrupt bargain to end the federal criminal prosecution against him,” reads the resolution, which also describes the order as “the poisonous fruit of Mayor Adams’ corrupt deal” with Trump’s team.

In seeking dismissal, Trump DOJ officials made clear they expected quashing the case would enable the mayor to help the president target undocumented New Yorkers for “mass deportations” — an arrangement that has led many to believe the mayor’s beholden to the president’s agenda.

Before the indictment was formally dropped, Trump immigration “czar” Tom Homan even went on live television and told Adams — who has denied a quid pro quo — that he’d be “up his butt” if he didn’t follow through on letting ICE back on Rikers. While the government initially sought to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges could be reinstated, it was eventually completely dropped.

More than 7,000 people, including immigrants, are incarcerated on Rikers. Most of them are awaiting trial and haven’t been convicted of any crimes.

Speaker Adams, who’s running for mayor this year, wouldn’t say before Thursday’s vote how soon the Council could file a lawsuit or whether any legal action would focus on alleged sanctuary law violations, conflict of interest issues, or some combination of both.

Though the resolution doesn’t mention it, the speaker said the Council is also looking at whether to sue the mayor for letting Randy Mastro, his new first deputy mayor, sign the executive order, telling reporters that may not be legal, either. Additionally, she confirmed the resolution empowers the Council to potentially sue Trump administration in addition to the mayor.

“We’re taking a look at all of this right now,” the speaker said.

Civil rights groups, including the Legal Aid Society, have said they’re considering legal action against Adams’ administration over the executive order, too. The Council would be able to tag onto such a suit as the resolution empowers the Council to file amicus briefs on the Rikers issue.

Under the executive order, ICE must enter into legal agreements with Adams’ administration promising to not engage in civil immigration enforcement.

Before the Council vote, Mastro declined repeatedly to say whether ICE will face consequences if they violate such an agreement, only saying “that isn’t going to happen.”

“It disrespects some pretty great public servants … to even ask the question when it’s not going to happen,” Mastro told reporters at City Hall.

If the Council sues the administration, Mastro said he’s “confident that we will win” and then described the order as an “unassailably good thing” similar to efforts by federal prosecutors to break up the mafia in New York.

“This is very much akin to what we did in the 1980s to break the mafia stranglehold over parts of our city,” said Mastro, a onetime top aide to ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed as Adams’ new first deputy last month.

Mastro made the mafia reference after saying the order will help the feds go after members of “terrorist organizations” incarcerated on Rikers. He declined to say how many such individuals are on Rikers or what intelligence his statement is based on.

Mastro did say he has learned the island houses members of Tren De Aragua, a Venezuelan gang Trump recently designated as a terrorist organization. That designation has raised concern from immigration advocates who allege it’s being used to illegally target swaths of Venezuelans for immediate deportation without due process.

Adams first announced on Feb. 13 — two days after Trump’s Justice Department first moved to dismiss his corruption case — that he would issue an executive order to let ICE back on Rikers.

On Tuesday, Mastro formally signed the order. That came about a week after Trump’s Justice Department secured the dismissal of Adams’ indictment.

In a rally outside City Hall before Thursday’s vote, Speaker Adams said she believes the mayor let Mastro sign the order in an effort to “hide” from the optics that he’s doing Trump’s bidding.

“But [the mayor] told us the decision was made by him while he was cozying up to Tom Homan,” she said. “The mayor has compromised the city’s serenity, and as a result, our families and communities are being put at risk.”

©2025 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.