How Dr. Phil and a Top Adams Aide Helped Ease ICE’s Path Into New York

If President Trump’s border czar was going to meet the goals of his boss’s ambitious deportation program in New York City, he would need an ally on the ground.

So the border czar, Tom Homan, asked that a top police official with a close relationship to the mayor be named as his liaison to City Hall.

In the weeks that followed, Mayor Eric Adams elevated that official, Kaz Daughtry, to the post of deputy mayor for public safety, one of the most powerful roles in city government.

From that perch, Mr. Daughtry, 46, has continued to act as Mr. Homan’s main point of contact in City Hall. He has laid the groundwork for Mr. Homan’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to operate in the Rikers Island jail complex and played an important role in planning massive raids on city-funded hotels housing thousands of migrants in Midtown Manhattan, only to see them aborted at the last minute. And he is slated to play a starring role in a new, city-approved reality show focused in part on the Police Department.

The Trump administration has already been accused of abandoning a federal corruption case against Mr. Adams in exchange for his cooperation with the White House’s immigration crackdown, something both the administration and the mayor have denied.

Still Mr. Adams has appeared eager to please the president. Now, with Mr. Trump vowing on social media to “expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens” in New York and other major cities, Mr. Daughtry is positioned to play a central role in any such effort.