New York Mayor Eric Adams reiterated that the city “can’t take any more immigrants” and called for funding and additional support from the federal government to meet the needs of the undocumented and residents themselves.
The Democrat traveled to the border city of El Paso on Sunday to appeal to the federal government for additional funding and support for U.S. cities that are hosting tens of thousands of migrants and are reporting budget deficits as a result.
“This is a national crisis and we need a national solution. Mayors like Oscar Leeser (also a Democrat) and I are on the front lines and we need federal support,” he added on Twitter.
He said that New York and El Paso are on the “frontlines” of an unprecedented immigration crisis, and reiterated that they bear most of the operational and financial burden of migrants released from the border. He implied that social welfare services had collapsed.
He believed that those cities, along with Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, “are being undermined. And we didn’t deserve that.”
“Immigrants don’t deserve that. And the people who live in these cities don’t deserve that,” stressed Adams during his first visit to the border.
He recalled that the current immigration crisis that the United States is facing has forced the President Joe Biden to adopt a new strategy to stop illegal border crossings the American borders; but he said the plan was still inadequate.
“We expect more from our national leaders to really address this issue,” Adams continued in response to Biden’s plan to issue 30,000 monthly permits to migrants of the four nationalities that contribute the most undocumented immigrants (Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti).
Specifically, he called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to “step up” and launch a statewide operation to coordinate aid and funding for cities and other local communities that are hosting immigrants.
He said that in the case of New York, there was no more space to accommodate more people. “We can’t do that,” he said.
Adams’ comments, quoted by CBS News, indicate that the strategy of Republican border-state governors, who have been sending masses of migrants to Democratic cities in recent months to put pressure on the migration crisis, is having an effect.
In New York, undocumented pressures have collapsed the homeless care system, as it is estimated that helping migrants could cost the Big Apple up to $2 billion.
The city is already running budget deficits, as are Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.