In a shift in policy, Mayor de Blasio said city money that's earmarked for legal assistance for those immigrants facing deportation should not be used for those convicted of serious crimes.

The mayor made his remarks on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show Friday, a couple of days after making similar statements upon the release of his Executive Budget proposal on Wednesday.

“With deepest respect to the advocates," he said, he noted that New York's sanctuary city law that limits cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement lists 170 criminal offenses for which city jails and police will turn someone over to immigration agents. He called that an "appropriate" policy and said that, "we are not going to provide legal services to stop that eviction, I mean deportation."

De Blasio's latest city budget proposal includes $16 million for programs to help immigrants seeking asylum, facing deportation and being held in detention.

Nisha Agarwal, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, said most people going through deportation have not been convicted of felonies and other serious crimes on the list of 170 offenses.

"And so the importance is, how do we prioritize the use of city dollars to provide resources to the most number of people who have the strongest cases moving forward," she said. "That's really the thinking about what's going on here. It's not about who we exclude, it's about who we include."

Among the 8,000 immigrants going through deportation proceedings locally in 2017, Agarwal said only about 400 are being held in detention and could have criminal records. Some of those in detention were caught crossing the border. 

However, the Legal Aid Society said the mayor should not be the one deciding who gets due process and who doesn't.

"Mayor de Blasio is not the court, judge and jury," said Adriene Holder, the attorney in charge of Legal Aid's civil practice and Tina Luongo, who runs the criminal practice, in a joint statement.

"To limit the program due to certain criminal convictions would deprive asylum seekers and lawful permanent residents of basic due process, be unjust and be contrary to the ideals of a sanctuary city,” they said.

Legal Aid is a partner in the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which provides free lawyers for immigrants and green card holders in detention, some of whom do have criminal convictions.

Agarwal said these lawyers would still be allowed to screen all detainees for representation.