NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Trump Admin Seeks to Move Columbia Student Case, City Population Rebounds, Parents Push for Free Childcare, and Mayoral Candidates React to Grad Student's Detention

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

The Trump administration wants to move Columbia University graduate and green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation case out of New York City while he remains detained in Louisiana. Meanwhile, after a sharp decline during the pandemic, New York City’s population is growing again. Plus, parents are urging the Adams administration to expand free childcare to two-year-olds, arguing high costs are pushing families out of the city. Finally, Khalil’s detention is fueling political backlash over free speech concerns, as the city remembers a longtime civil rights leader.

NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, March 13th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. The Trump administration watched Mahmood Khalil's case moved outside New York City. This morning, the Columbia University graduate and green card holder remains in a Louisiana detention facility. WNYC Samantha Max was at yesterday's. hearing. Kalil played a leading role in campus protests against the war in Gaza. His lawyers say he is

a legal permanent resident. Attorneys are urging a judge to release Khalil. A crowd of supporters cheered for the lawyers as they left court. Kalil's attorneys say their client is being detained illegally and punished for exercising his First Amendment rights. Government officials say he lined himself with the terrorist group Hamas, but didn't provide evidence in court. Khalil is being held at a detention facility in Louisiana and did not appear in court. After taking a nosedive during the pandemic, the number of people living in New York City is increasing. WNIC's Julia Hayward reports. According to a new report from the Census Bureau, the number of people living in the New York, Newark, and Jersey City metropolitan areas increased.

from 2023 to 2024. The metropolitan area ranked at the top of places in the country that saw its numbers grow in that same time window. And Kings County, also known as Brooklyn, grew to one of the top 10 most populous counties in the nation. The Census Bureau says that the number of people living in metropolitan areas across the country increased by almost 3.2 million people. Some parents are calling on the Adams administration

to expand the city's free child care program to two-year-olds because they say the high cost of care is forcing families to leave New York. Margaret Day has a two-month-old and a three-year-old. She was rallying outside City Hall this week to call attention to the affordability crisis. I was just calculating in my head that I probably will spend about $40,000 this coming year on child care. To be able to reduce that number when my smallest is two would be, It's just such a huge help. Families are paying an average of $21,000 a year on child care. Some city council members and advocates say they hope to get more funding, earmark for child care, and today's city budget education hearing.

That's at 10 o'clock and 1 o'clock today. And taking a look at your weather. 40 and clear now, nice and cool. Partly sunny, still cool today, a high of 49. Stick around. There's more to come. It is time for politics brief from WNMYC. The Trump administration sent New York politicians into a frenzy once again this week, this time by detaining a recent Columbia University graduate

and threatening to deport him over his pro-Palestinian activism. Plus, while the K. Stokes fears over a crackdown on free speech, the city bid farewell to a long-serving civil rights leader. WMIC's Bridget Bergen and John Campbell, join us now to unpack all of this and more. So, John, we started with the news about Mahmood Khalil. He's the green card holding grad student at Columbia University, who is currently in ICE detention. Where are New York officials on this? Well, Sean, there's been really a mix of reaction to this, but when it comes to Mayor Adams and Governor Hockel,

neither of them really took a particularly strong position. Adams, for example, said it's not his job to weigh in on federal. issues like this. He says that's ICE's job. Governor Hokel, she did talk about the arrest, but she took pains not to take sides. I mean, when she spoke to us about this yesterday, she spoke out against anti-Semitism, but then she said she doesn't know enough whether to say Khalil's detention is justified or whether it's a political act. And she said she's going to reserve judgment until the federal courts weigh in. And I would say that that really does contrast with how some of the candidates for mayor, you know, Mayor Adams excluded, reacted to this. Of course, Andrew Cuomo

similarly kind of avoided speaking about the topic. His campaign issued a statement that condemns anti-Semitism on campuses and says campus agitators have gone unchecked too long. But by contrast, City Council Speaker Adrian Adams said this at a press conference before today's City Council meeting. I believe that the Trump administration's actions to detain Mr. Khalil, who is a permanent resident with a green card, without legal justification, was a new low. Blatently violating the Constitution was a new low. And she went on to say that, you know, no matter how people feel about Khalil's views, the actions of the Trump administration really should be worrying everybody because it's

another kind of moving towards authoritarianism. She said, who's going to be detained next just because they disagree with what the person's saying? Now, John, the nation's borders are Tom Holman was in Albany, Sine. How did that go? Yeah, I mean, he was in Albany at the Capitol right outside where I'm speaking to you now to speak out against sanctuary policies in New York City, New York State. He pushed a couple of Republican-sponsored bills that would force the state to cooperate with ICE. But it really led to this really tense situation out in the hallway. There were a couple dozen angry Democratic lawmakers who were outside the district. door where Homan was speaking. They were mad

in part because of that detention of Mahmoud Khalil. And when Tom Homan finally came out, he was literally chomping on an apple. And he kind of gave the protesters a smirk and a wave as he walked right by. That really made him mad. Listen to this. What charges did you detain Mahmoud Khalil on?

Do you believe in the First Amendment, Tom Homan? Do you believe in the First Amendment? Now, the most prominent voice you heard there, that was Zoran Mamdani. That's the Queen's Assembly member who was running for mayor. A viral confrontation would do his campaign well. He got within a foot or two of Tom Homan and was really pushing him on a Khalil's arrest. And that was in stark contrast to the reception that Mayor Adams has given Tom Homan,

who's, you know, he's extended a cooperative hand to Tom Homan. I mean, it's so interesting because we know that the, you know, Mandani team is really savvy when it comes to their social media, so the fact that they were able to capture that moment, which will appeal to so many of the voters who I think he is trying to reach out to. You know, when Homan was here in New York, there were some protests. But he also, I think, left New York City with a lot in hand. Of course, after that meeting with Mayor Adams, you know, the mayor announced changes to Rikers Island, allowing ICE to come back into Rikers Island, which they had been, you know, not allowed and had been, you know, kicked off of during the Diplosio administration. And of course, there was that moment on Fox and

Friends when the two of them were sitting there, Mayor Adams and Tom Homan, the Borders are, where, you know, he publicly said that Adams will now have to, you know, stand by the Trump administration's immigration policies. Otherwise, he would be back, you know, in the city. And I think up, up his butt was the phrase that he used, a choice phrase that, you know, it's burned in my brain. But, you know, it was definitely a stark contrast to what I think John was describing there in Albany. Yeah, yeah. It's burned in all of our brains. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Interesting exchange, to say the least. Let's stay with mayoral candidates. We're going to turn out someone who used to be up in Albany but is now trying to be mayor of New York City. Bridget, you've been reporting on Andrew Cuomo's campaign. What did you find? Well, you know, this is, we're approaching the end of a fundraising period, Sean. So we're getting ready to do some reporting on their first filing. This will be the first campaign finance filing for the new Cuomo mayoral campaign.

And as I was, you know, looking to see some background information, I found that his campaign treasurer, the person who's been hired to ensure campaign compliance is a guy named Christopher Graham, a registered Republican from Long Island, who has also done work for other Republican candidates and recently for a committee called the Coalition to Protect Kids, which was a ballot committee that worked last year. to fight Proposition 1, which was a ballot question that was about enshrining abortion access and anti-discrimination into the state constitution. But that particular group in fighting against it really talked about the threats to parents' rights and particularly leaned into this idea of the threats

to girls' sports. So we talked to the Cuomo campaign, and then we talked to some other folks who raised some concerns about it. You know, the Cuomo campaign said very simply, like, you know, his spokesman, Rich as a Party, called it silly season, said this is a campaign compliance professional. That's why he was hired, pointed to Cuomo's record on these issues. But there were others, you know, who raise some concerns about it. So that's something that we're watching. You know, I will note that he, this particular individual, Christopher Graham, does not

exclusively work for Republicans. One of his other clients is city council member Gail Brewer, who is really among, you know, one of the furthest, you know, an esteemed sort of good government type. So she said he's a really good CPA. That's why she hired him. Okay, we're going to try to get another one in here before we have to let you guys go. John Cuomo's successor, having a bit of a rough month up in Albany. What is going on with her?

Yeah, it seems like every single day, Governor Kathy Hokel has a new crisis to deal with, a metaphorical fire to put out. You know, just in the last four weeks, it's been a prison strike. It has been she's had to weigh removing Mayor Adams. Donald Trump tried to stop congestion pricing. The Attorney General sued her over the state's driver's license law. And oh, yeah, Andrew Cuomo jumped in the mayor's race. They're not big fans of each other. And that doesn't even count the literal brush fires on Long Island.

And so far it hasn't really had an impact on her poll numbers. That's the good news. The bad news is that's in part because they were pretty bad to begin with. She was at 40% approval in a Sienna poll earlier this week. Well, we will leave with our listener question of the week. We want to know what you think of Governor Hockel's policy priorities, things like banning smartphones during the school day and sending rebate checks to New Yorkers. If you want to weigh in or keep hearing more from our politics team,

be sure to sign up for emails at gotthmus.com slash newsletters. We'll see you again in a week for the next politics brief. John, Bridget. Thanks so much. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives.

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