NYC Mayor Eric Adams labels county exec who blocked asylum seekers as ‘racist’ and ‘antisemitic’

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams labels county exec who blocked asylum seekers as ‘racist’ and ‘antisemitic’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city would fight any legal challenges preventing busloads of asylum seekers from arriving in upstate counties. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday slammed Rockland County Executive Ed Day as "racist" and "antisemitic" after the official issued a restraining order blocking the Democratic mayor from sending busloads of asylum seekers. 

Adams tried to distance himself from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, telling reporters that New York City was footing the bill and only taking volunteers. He stressed that his office has been in communication with Rockland and Orange county officials — an assertion the counties have challenged.  

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks to family members of fallen New York Police Department officers while attending the NYPD Memorial Day ceremony, May 3, 2023, in Manhattan, N.Y., where new names were added to the Memorial Wall located in the lobby of the headquarters.  ( Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)

"When you look at the County Exec [Ed] Day, I mean this guy has a record of being antisemitic, you know, his racist comments," Adams said, without providing examples. "You know, his thoughts and how he responded to this, it shows a lack of leadership."

Adams’ office pointed Fox News Digital to past reports which portrayed Day’s remarks as pitting voters against a bloc of Hasidic and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.

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Day shot back at Adams, telling Fox News Digital, "the mayor can call me every name in the book to deflect the reality of this clear disregard for our laws. And maybe he can explain his own documented ‘racist comments." 

Day was referring to comments Adams, a former police officer, made before he became mayor, in which called White cops "crackers." Adams later apologized for those remarks. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams sends migrants to upstate New York. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Adams’ Thursday comments came as his plan to move several hundred asylum seekers to hotels in New York's Orange and Rockland counties moved forward.  

Leaders in Orange and Rockland counties have pushed back against Adams’ plan to send over 300 migrants to Rockland County's Armoni Inn & Suites hotel in Orangeburg, and Orange County's The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, the latter of which saw migrants arrive on Thursday.

Rockland County successfully obtained a temporary restraining order from a state Supreme Court judge on Tuesday, after arguing that the move violated local zoning regulations.

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Adams said Thursday the city would not be deterred by legal challenges. 

"You can’t use the court to deny people to move around the State of New York," Adams said. "We’re going to challenge all of the legal obstacles that are attempting to be placed in our way because it would set a bad precedent if someone was saying in the State of New York that you are not allowed to come here." 

Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report.