What is NYC's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, whose leader got a visit from the feds?

Federal law enforcement officials served a subpoena to the director of the New York City's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations on Friday, adding yet another twist to the ongoing investigations into Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

The building where the director's parents live also got a visit from law enforcement, according to surveillance footage provided to Gothamist.

The office Molly Schaeffer leads was launched in March 2023 as part of Adams’ response to the influx of migrants to the city. When the office was established, Adams said it would focus on the city’s ongoing efforts to provide “resettlement and legal services," along with a new “24/7 arrival center for asylum-seekers.”

By its own description, the office is supposed to coordinate and manage all services for asylum-seekers, including lobbying state and federal offices for additional support and working with external partners in the business and nonprofit sectors. Some skeptics have argued that it is duplicative, given that the city already had an Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“You already have a mayor’s office of immigration, so why do you need to create another office?” said Power Malu, executive director of the grassroots group Artists, Athletes, Activists, which has been helping new arrivals navigate the city’s changing rules for those seeking shelter and support since August 2022.

More than 215,000 asylum-seekers have come through the city since the spring of 2022, driving more than $5.6 billion in public spending, according to data the city released earlier this month. The Office of Asylum Seeker Operations runs application help centers for asylum seekers and has filed more than 75,000 applications with the federal government, according to City Hall. It's also involved in navigation sites, run by the immigrant affairs office, at 13 locations around the city. The sites are supposed to provide people with access to a host of support services, including health care, legal services and enrollment in city schools.

Schaeffer's office has faced scrutiny from the City Council, which has sought to provide oversight of how the Adams administration is aiding migrants and of immigrant advocates and grassroots organizations working to support people’s needs on the ground.

Malu said that in his dealings with Schaeffer, the office's leader, “she has been used as a buffer between our grassroots [organization] and the administration whenever we searched for answers or solutions to problems."

As an example, Malu cited problems migrants face receiving their mail, especially when they are forced to move into new shelters after running up against the city’s 30- and 60-day limits on shelter stays. He said his group has offered the city solutions to these and other challenges for migrants, but that its input is often ignored and rejected.

“The answer is always, 'We're looking into it. We're working on a solution,' and nothing ever comes of it,” Malu said.

In testimony before the City Council in April, Schaeffer said migrants forced to reapply for shelter had received cots in 24 hours. The same day, Gothamist reported the city had left many migrants stranded on a waiting list for new shelter accommodations for more than a week, violating a settlement agreement with the nonprofit Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless.

Schaeffer has been open to hearing from opponents of new migrant shelters. She appeared alongside Adams at a private dinner meeting with a group of neighbors in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where the mayor said his goal was to reduce the number of migrants staying at a 3,000-bed shelter in the neighborhood.

According to Adams, Schaeffer also works on a team including Timothy Pearson, a close friend of Adams who was put in charge of managing emergency contracts for migrant shelters. Pearson, whose phone was reportedly seized by federal agents earlier this month, has been embroiled in several controversies — including a lawsuit alleging he sought to enrich himself through the city's no-bid contract process.

Schaeffer joined City Hall in the last years of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and stayed into Adams’ tenure. Before that, she was a policy adviser in the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She also worked as a policy manager and special assistant in the office of the city's schools chancellor.

The specific nature of the subpoena Schaeffer received from federal prosecutors on Friday was not immediately clear. It comes as several high-ranking members of the Adams administration face state and federal investigations into his 2021 election campaign and City Hall. According to the AP, federal agents did not seize Schaeffer's devices, as was the case with other administration members, including Adams himself.

Asked whether Schaeffer would remain in her role or take a leave during the ongoing investigation, mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy said, “Why would she take a leave?”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the length of Molly Schaeffer's tenure in City Hall. She began in 2019. The story has also been updated with more information from City Hall about the role of the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations.