NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Judge Halts Fast-Track Deportations, Bird Collector Fined for Trafficking Endangered Species, Harlem Night Market Returns, and State Budget Stalled

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

A federal judge in Manhattan has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from fast-tracking migrant deportations in New York without due process, after it used a centuries-old law to expel alleged Venezuelan gang members. Meanwhile, a bird collector who smuggled endangered species through JFK Airport has been fined $900,000 and sentenced to probation. Also, Harlem’s Uptown Night Market kicks off its season Thursday with food, music, and local vendors. Plus, in this week’s politics brief, the state budget stalemate and Mayor Adams’ independent re-election bid are in focus.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, April 10th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. A federal judge in Manhattan is temporarily blocking the Trump administration from deporting migrants in New York without notice or a court hearing. The ruling issued last night is in response to President Trump's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, which the administration claims is invading the United States. Civil rights groups in New York

challenged the deportations on behalf of clients in the state's Southern District, claiming the White House was ignoring bedrock principles of the American legal system such as due process. The parties returned to court April 22nd. Federal prosecutors say a bird-cold collector is on the hook for nearly a million dollars in fines for trafficking endangered species through JFK Airport. Deputy NMAC's Julia Haywood explains. Over the course of four years, John Waldrop illegally imported rare birds and eggs to bolster a massive rare bird collection. His taxidermy collection included specimens that couldn't be found in any North American museum. But the collection was as illegal as it was vast. Walldrop,

and an accomplice, move the birds and eggs through JFK Airport in violation of the Endangered Species Act. A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled Waldrop will now have to serve three years of probation time and fork over $900,000 in fines. Information for Waldrop's attorney was not immediately available. Harlem's uptail night market is back tonight. It's the first one of the season. The monthly event takes place off West 133rd Street. in Riverside Drive under what's known as the Arches of Harlem.

It starts at four and runs until 10. Organizers call it a celebration of Harlem's culinary scene and diversity. They expect more than 50 vendors to take part. The night market is planned for the second Thursday of every month through October. 41 and mostly clear right now. Mostly cloudy today, a high temperature in the low 50s. Overnight rain likely, a low around 41, and then expect more rain tomorrow, cloudy in 51, and rain Friday night, Saturday rain,

a chilly 49 on Saturday and rain at night, then on Sunday a slim chance of afternoon. Showers, mostly cloudy, and a high all the way up near 60 degrees. 41 and mostly cloudy right now. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm David first. It's time for Politics Brief, our weekly segment, where we break down the news out of City Hall and Albany. This week, state budget negotiations are stalled. It has prompted one top lawmaker to introduce a bill to put a check on Governor Hockel's power to delay a deal.

And Mayor Adams is now free from prosecution and running as an independent. And some of his choices are raising more questions about his relationship to the Trump administration, including his wardrobe choices? To explain, we are joined by W1YC's John Campbell at the state capital and by WNYC's Elizabeth Kim right here in downtown Manhattan. And John, we'll get to the wardrobe later. But let's start with the budget talks in Albany. The budget is now nine days late and we appear to be at a stalemate. Can you explain why and how one top lawmakers is trying to hold Governor Hokel more accountable in reaching a timely

budget deal with the legislature. Well, David, that lawmaker you're talking about is Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty. He's a Democrat from the Bronx. And he's got this new proposal that really speaks to how poorly budget negotiations are going on right now in Albany. I mean, he's long railed against governors inserting all sorts of unrelated policy proposals into state budget talks, even if they don't have anything to do with dollars and cents. He says that's what's holding up a budget deal now. So he introduced a bill that attempts to curb Governor Hokel's power to do that. So how would that work?

It all has to do with lawmakers' pay. When the budget is late, lawmakers have their pay checks suspended by law until it's passed. That gives incentive to the governor. A bit of an incentive, yes. Yeah, exactly. You go beyond the April 1st budget deadline and you hold out for your priorities and hopefully lawmakers cave. So Hasty's bill would get rid of that pay suspension, but only if governor put non-budgetary policy in their budget proposal.

Governor's office isn't responding well to that. A spokesperson noted that lawmakers are the highest paid in the nation and said if they want to get paid on time, they should pass the governor's priorities. And, you know, all of this hold up with the state budget leaves the city budget in uncertainty too. And there hasn't been a lot of talk about the city's budget, but there's a lot to worry about. the city has for years now had higher than expected tax revenues, but that might all be at risk now because of, one, potential cuts to federal programs that we're seeing from the Trump administration and to the tariffs. Now, we haven't seen that anxiety expressed by the mayor because for all of his scandals and low approval ratings, the mayor has benefited when it comes to the budget from his. his steady alliance with Hockel. And he's really hoping that he can take another victory lap this year because he has some

policy proposals that are on the table. He has a plan to cut local personal income taxes for the poorest New Yorkers. He has a plan to lower the threshold for involuntary removal of people with mental illness and changes to the discovery law, which he says would stop recidivism. Well, John, let's talk about one of the mayor's priorities that Liz just mentioned, criminal discovery laws. The governor has identified that as one of her top priorities as well, but lawmakers have concerns. What's the holdout? Yeah, so that's the law that sets deadlines and timelines for sharing evidence with defendants in criminal cases.

And the governor and district attorneys are all kind of on the same page, but they can't get on the same page with lawmakers so far. DA is from New York City and across the state have been coming to the Capitol all week to talk to the governor and lawmakers about it. That includes Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who spoke to reporters at the Capitol earlier today. The idea that you might not include the 20th body camp or a memo book that someone might have been using, even though there's no prejudice or any issue with the defense, that case right now is being dismissed. And that's really a problem for our victims. So that's really what's at the heart of this. Legislative leaders say they don't want cases tossed for, you know, irrelevant issues with the, with the evidence either. But lawmakers do take issue with that idea of prejudice. If a judge gets to decide whether or not the evidence, you know, causes prejudice to a defendant and is big enough to toss a case and that invites bias into the process. And lawmakers don't like that. So they're at a stalemate. And the entirety of this $250 billion plus budget. hangs in the balance.

Okay, well, turning to you, Liz, the mayor held his first City Hall press conference this week since his federal corruption charges were dismissed and since announcing that he's planning to forego the June primary run and run as an independent in November instead. There's a lot going on at City Hall. Can you catch us up?

Sure. So going into this press conference, there was the news that the Trump administration had canceled nearly $200 million in grants that were to be used for caring for migrants. Now, this was the second time that federal officials have taken away migrant funding that was previously allocated to the city. In February, they took away $80 million from the city's bank accounts.

You know, the mayor has developed this rhetorical way of criticizing the Trump administration's actions without criticizing Trump himself. and, you know, the press conference was basically him walking that very fine line. Well, but Liz, you've got to tell us about that shirt he was wearing now. Oh, was he wearing something different, John? Yes, the mayor came in wearing a very form-fitting white t-shirt, emblazoned with the American flag and with the words in God we trust. This was a nod to his faith, getting him through the last 15 months, he said.

But, you know, in many ways, you know, this was. It was kind of a gimmick. It was a gimmick that distracted from what is really quite a serious moment for the city. You know, there there is a lot of attention that is paid to whether or not the mayor criticizes Trump. And, you know, why does it matter? Well, the mayor has lost a lot of influence because of his corruption scandal. But one of the powers that he has as the city's top elected leader is, to translate for New Yorkers the impact of federal policies on their lives. And in this moment, he's choosing not to do so. Well, in the last minute we have here, let's turn to the tariffs, which we've been hearing are now on pause with the exception of China. What is the discussion coming out of Albany and City Hall on the impact of these tariffs on the local economy? That's pretty easy on the Albany end. They're not really talking about it much at all, aside from acknowledging that it will have to have.

have perhaps an impact on the budget. But as they put these state budget together, they're not anticipating any shortfall and tax revenue or anything like that from these tariffs and the broader market volatility. Instead, they're taking an approach where if they don't hit their tax projections, they'll come back later in the year to deal with it. For Adams, this was another classic moment where he was sort of putting his head in the sand. You know, he basically kind of punted the issue by saying that there are people with greater minds than him that understand this stuff and he doesn't even pretend to. But, you know, the mayor does have access to a lot of experts who can understand this stuff and explain tariffs to him. And again, you know, you can argue it's his job to understand this stuff.

And it's his job to explain it to New Yorkers. But, you know, we're seeing time and time again that when it comes to assessing any possible damage that could be done to New York from. the Trump administration. Adams doesn't want to go there. WNYC's Elizabeth Kim and John Campbell. Thanks for joining us. And now for our listener question, do you think legislators should keep getting paid if the budget is late, like Carl Hasty proposed? Sign up at gothamist.com slash newsletters if you want to answer. That's it for politics brief. Once again, check out gothomist.com slash newsletters. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC.

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