Some critics are calling New York City Mayor Eric Adams' management of the migrant crisis chaotic and are casting doubt over his leadership, according to a New York Times feature.
In a Tuesday article headlined, "Chaos, fury, mistakes: 600 days inside New York's migrant crisis," The Times interviewed human rights advocates and local officials on New York City's handling of the migrant crisis.
Adams announced back in May that the city has received over 70,000 migrants into the city. For months, the mayor of one of America's most recognizable cities has told New Yorkers the migrant crisis will worsen a budget shortfall and cause suffering for both constituents and migrants. Adams said that New York City has already spent more than $1 billion in addressing the migrant crisis and is projected to need more than $4 billion in funding.
The Republican executive of Orange County, Steven Neuhaus, told The Times that Adams sent two buses of migrants to his county without making good on his promise to contact him before proceeding.
"I never heard anything back," Neuhaus said. "Soon, two buses of migrants, with New York City police escorts, arrived at an Orange County hotel," according to The Times.
Other officials in upstate New York also complained that Adams did not give them "adequate warning" before sending buses of migrants upstate.
"It angered everybody," Daniel McCoy, the Albany County executive, told The Times.
NEW YORK CITY MIGRANT FAMILIES URGE MAYOR TO REVOKE 60-DAY SHELTER LIMIT
Some officials, like New York City comptroller Brad Lander, have directly opposed Adams, restricting "the mayor’s emergency power to contract for migrant services without review."
"His spokeswoman pointed to ‘extensive failures’ by the city," The Times reported.
A volunteer aid group executive, Power Malu, called the scenes "fabricated chaos."
Some migrants choose to "sleep on the sidewalk outside an office to hold their place in line" for shelter, with others getting into outright "[s]hoving matches."
The confusion and overcrowding of shelters in New York City and across the state comes as migrants' families and advocates protest Adams' policy for a 60-day limit for stay in shelters, per the Associated Press.
Adams' office referred Fox News Digital to a press conference that the mayor gave on Tuesday. Adams said that the Biden administration was responsible for taking care of the thousands of migrants arriving in New York City, not his government.
"That's the federal government's job," Adams said at the press conference. "The federal government said to New York City, ‘we’re not going to do our job, you do our job. You take care of 4,000 people a week, Eric, you and your team.'"