Adams
© APMayor Eric Adams • Times Square • December 30, 2022
If left unchecked, the migrant crisis that has brought 35,700 illegals into New York since the spring could bankrupt the city, Mayor Eric Adams warned Wednesday, the New York Post reports.

At a news conference in Brooklyn, Adams said:
"Migrants flooding New York are costing 'real dollar amounts'. There is no more room at the inn. This is an expensive endeavor that we are in, and we have to find ways of carrying out this task without bankrupting the city."
Refusing to blame President Joe Biden directly, the mayor said it's "easy to point to whoever's in the White House at the time" — but he did say the federal government is responsible for solving this humanitarian crisis straining New York resources.

More than 24,000 migrants are currently living in 68 emergency shelters and processing centers in New York.

Adams said:
"When I say the federal government, I'm talking about Congress and the executive branch resolving the issue of our migrants. And we're not going to try to simplify this. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, other New York City officials and I were meeting continuously to pivot, shift and figure out how to solve this crisis that was dropped on us."
The $1.7 billion federal spending plan Biden signed Thursday has $800 million for migrant-related aid that New York could apply for.

New York requested $1 billion in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency but has not seen any of that money yet.

However, late last month, the government did agree to give New York just under $8 million in federal aid to help with the city's sudden influx of asylum seekers over the summer, less than 1% of what city hall had requested.

When two reporters asked the mayor directly about Biden's position on the southern border and migrants, Hizzoner ducked mentioning his fellow Democrat by name, saying simply,
"Listen, we have to solve the migrant, immigrant issue — so it's easy to point to whoever's in the White House. Those are Band-Aids. We have a problem at our borders."

Comment: FYI: "Hizzoner" is a nickname used by journalists to refer to big city mayors.


Adams added that shifting the problem on to New York, Chicago and other U.S. cities was "unfair to local governments."

The mayor said a day earlier that he had learned Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, is "going to be sending migrants to places like New York City and Chicago."

Adams said he spoke with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot immediately after learning about Polis' plan. Lightfoot, Adams said, called transferring the migrants from Colorado to New York and Chicago "inhumane."

Lightfoot told Adams that they should no longer be "patient," even at the risk of "embarrassing our families," as Adams recounted the conversation.

A spokesperson for Polis did not return a request from the NYP for comment.

Over the summer, 6,000 migrants sought shelter in New York, many sent from Texas by bus at the direction of Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a protest against the Biden administration's immigration policies.