During a weekend trip to El Paso, Texas, Mayor Adams reiterated calls for federal assistance for the city’s migrant crisis and stated his desire to unite his counterparts across the country.
After a day of closed-door meetings with local officials and asylum seekers, Adams reiterated recent statements that New York is at a breaking point.
“New York can’t take it any longer. “We can’t,” he said on Sunday, referring to the recent influx of newcomers.
According to the mayor, the city received 3,100 asylum seekers in the seven days that ended last Wednesday.
“This is a national problem,” Adams said alongside El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser at a press conference. “We need real immigration reform, and we need a short-term fix to ensure that the cost of this does not fall on our cities.”
With other cities sending migrants to New York, the city’s shelter and emergency housing population could top 100,000 in the coming weeks, Adams warned on Friday. He estimated that the cost to city taxpayers could be up to $2 billion.
“The federal government should pick up the entire cost of what El Paso and all of the other municipalities are going through,” he said.
According to the mayor’s press office, Adams flew to the Texas city on Saturday for a trip that included stops at a local shelter, a US Customs and Border Protection processing facility, and a section of the infamous border wall with Mexico.
His press secretary shared a video of Adams conversing with a group of asylum seekers, who applauded.
“Asylum seekers overwhelmingly raise their hands outside Sacred Heart Church to tell @NYCMayor they want to work,” spokesman Fabien Levy tweeted. “Since last year, Mayor Adams has urged the federal government to expedite work authorization for asylum seekers.”
At the United States Conference of Mayors this week in Washington, D.C., Adams promised to make immigration a top priority.
“This has hit our cities,” he said. “And I am now going to coordinate with my mayors across the country to say, ‘How do we respond directly to this?'”
He also blasted the governors of Colorado and Texas for sending migrants to New York and other major cities.
“I think they had a bipartisan disrespect for the cities. It was wrong, and it should not have happened and should not continue to happen,” Adams said.
In the short term, he believes the Federal Emergency Management Agency should step in.
“There should be one coordinator to coordinate everything that is happening in our country dealing with migrants and asylum seekers,” he added.
After meeting with recent border crossers, the mayor stated that some are getting the wrong impression of New York.
“There are websites that advertise New York City, and the streets are basically paved with gold,” he said.
“There’s a conversation among those who are … asylum seekers and migrants who are given the false impression that if you come to New York City, everything is fine. We must provide people with accurate information.”
