NYC Mayor Eric Adams called the border crisis a “disaster” during his trip to El Paso over the weekend after saying 40,200 immigrants had arrived in the city since last spring and that another influx would cost the Big Apple 2 billion could cost dollars.
“Why isn’t this considered a disaster? This is a crisis,” Adams told the New York Post at the end of his border visit.
“Nobody is coordinating these national efforts,” he said Sunday night from Texas, before announcing he would be traveling to Washington DC this week to attend the US Mayors’ Conference and develop a “real strategy” to solve the problem.
Adams also attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where he had already applied for $1 billion. “FEMA needs to step up. That’s her job,’ he said.
His comments were in stark contrast to the mayor’s previous claim on Twitter that New York City is always welcoming of migrants.
Eric Adams toured migrant shelters and visited the southern border on the El Paso trip before describing the situation as a “disaster.”
Despite his frustration, Adams (pictured during his trip to El Paso this weekend) has not directly criticized Joe Biden or addressed New York’s shelter city policy
Adams last week estimated that nearly 500 migrants were arriving in the city each day — a rate that could no longer be sustained.
Despite this frustration, Adams has not directly criticized Biden and has not said whether he will arrange a meeting with the president to get the increased funding he is asking for through the line.
On Monday, he was slammed for not specifically blaming Biden, another Democrat, for the issue.
Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representative for parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, attacked him for calling the crisis merely a national problem and not naming the president.
“The mayor is right in the sense that he says this is a national crisis, but he has to say this is a national crisis caused by Joe Biden,” Malliotakis told Fox News.
“Joe Biden instituted the policies by executive order that have caused this mess. This did not happen under President Trump. It didn’t happen under President Obama, and it’s reached an all-time high,” she said.
People wait for children returning from school at Manhattan’s Row Hotel, which serves as a housing facility for migrants
Another issue Adams hasn’t addressed is New York’s shelter city policy, which included some of the lack of cooperation with federal agencies to curb illegal immigration.
“You saw yesterday people saying they wanted to go to New York City because they heard that New York City is hosting the migrants and they are taking care of their needs,” Malliotakis said.
During a speech in Texas, Adams hinted that his city’s overwhelming intake of migrants was having an adverse effect on its citizens.
“Our cities are being undermined. We didn’t deserve this. Migrants don’t deserve this and the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this. There’s no more room in New York,’ he said.
Nicole Malliotakis (pictured last November), a Republican representative for parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, attacked Adams for not blaming Biden for the crisis
In 2017, Adams tweeted, “We have always welcomed migrants to New York City. Nothing will change about that’
At some points he has hinted that the city’s tight budget means the migrant crisis will force it to cut basic services.
Adams, who officially declared a state of emergency over the flood of migrants into the city in October, has expressed a shifting and conflicting stance on migrants coming to his city.
In a 2017 tweet, he said, “We have always welcomed migrants to New York City. Nothing will change about that.”
The city has provided shelter, food and clothing to migrants in the past, and has argued in the past that they should be allowed to assimilate faster and with greater ease.
But last week the mayor said New York had reached its “breaking point” as 400 asylum seekers arrive every day.
In addition to requests for federal assistance and appeals to the White House, he submitted an emergency assistance request to the state and Gov. Kathy Hochul, asking for immediate help to house the arriving migrants.
“We’re at our breaking point,” Adams said. “Based on our projections, we assume that we will no longer be able to accommodate incoming asylum seekers on our own.
“Our initial proposal is housing for 500 asylum seekers, but as New York City continues to inflate numbers, that estimate will increase as well.”
The appeal came a week after Colorado joined the list of states bringing migrants to New York City to ease the burden on those near the southern border.