AMNY: Mayor Eric Adams stood alongside Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in Queens on Tuesday afternoon and charged that much of the crime along Roosevelt Avenue has been orchestrated by “illegal migrants” whom the NYPD and the feds have rooted out.
Adams used the controversial term amidst ongoing ICE raids in New York and around the country that have left many outraged because of the random and forceful nature federal agents have taken people, including immigrants and citizens without criminal records into custody.
“The participation of violent illegal migrants in our city, and one of them was the 18th Street gang, indicating there were violent transnational gang members, a racketeering conspiracy, narcotics and firearms trafficking, extortion, and assault,” Hizzoner said during the June 24 press conference at the 115th Precinct stationhouse in Jackson Heights.
The mayor also thanked the feds for working with the NYPD to remove a gang that, he said, had previously made the Roosevelt Avenue corridor unsafe.
Crime decreases on Roosevelt Avenue
The press conference gave Adams and Tisch an opportunity to tout a double-digit decrease in crime along Roosevelt Avenue during a months-long initiative implemented late last year called “Operation Restore Roosevelt.”
Per NYPD stats, since the beginning of 2025, burglaries are down 48%, grand larcenies are down 29.4%, felony assaults are down 28.2%, and robberies are down 26.6%.
The NYPD also began cracking down on prostitution out of businesses along Roosevelt Avenue last fall, prompting several protests pushing back against the cleanup effort, arguing that cops primarily targeted immigrants.
Adams also looked to ensure the public that the city was offering sex workers resources in order to alleviate their dependence on selling their bodies.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said that human trafficking was pushed to the side streets where people paid for sex out of parked vehicles, but noted that this issue is also being addressed.
