Mayor Eric Adams insists NYC migrant crisis has nothing to do with sanctuary city status
Mayor Eric Adams rejected a critique from Republican Nikki Haley about why his city is suffering from overwhelming numbers of migrants.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday appealed to the state to foot roughly half the tab for the city’s ongoing illegal immigration crisis.
Adams traveled to the state legislature in Albany, where he testified at an annual hearing known as "Tin Cup Day," where mayors from around the Empire State lobby for state funds, and called for a total allocation of $4.6 billion through 2025, according to the New York Post.
"I think there's a realization that New York City and New York state is going to have to address this issue and we’re saying it should not be all on the backs of New York City residents," Adams said.
"It has put the city in a precarious situation. Today we are asking the state to increase its commitment to 50% of our cost," Adams, a Democrat, said.
New York Mayor Adams and migrants in the city (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News | Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Adams testified that the Big Apple's shelter population has tripled since he took office. At least 170,000 illegal migrants have arrived in New York since the spring of 2022.
New York state has already vowed to contribute about $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2025 toward the migrant crisis, but Adams told lawmakers on Tuesday that the state pledge would only cover one-third of the city’s costs. The $2.4 billion is in addition to the $1.9 billion already allocated by the state in fiscal year 2024.
About $1.3 billion of the $2.4 billion that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has already committed is paying for large-scale migrant tent shelters in Queens, Randall’s Island and Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, Adams said. About $1.1 billion will pay for housing, food and other services for the roughly 67,000 migrants still in the city’s care.
"We’re the economic engine of the state," Adams said. "And we’ve always been here for the state. We need the state now to be here for us in the city."
Officials had hoped that the cost of the crisis would be split equally three ways between the city, state and federal government, although Adams admitted the federal government never agreed to that arrangement. So far, the Biden administration has allocated around $150 million in federal aid.
"The feds never gave their third, so we’re getting 70% of the burden," Adams said while being grilled by state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, about why Albany should boost funding, according to The Post.
"Despite our efforts, we cannot assume they will give us any more."
Volunteers give away food and clothing to migrants on Jan. 27, 2024, in the East Village neighborhood of New York City. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
The cash request comes as the mayor has come under fire for a $53 million pilot program to hand out pre-paid credit cards to migrant families housed in hotels.
At the hearing, the mayor said he sought to dismiss "misinformation" about the program.
"We’re not giving people American Express cards," Adams said. "We found that the food delivery service that we set up during the emergency – we could find a better way to do it in our belief that we want to cut 20% of the migrant costs. So we have a pilot project with 500 people that we are giving them food cards, so instead of a debit card, instead of having to deliver food, and have people eat food – we were seeing wasting food – they’re now able to get their own food, that is going to be spent $12 a day."
Adams dismissed questions surrounding the city’s sanctuary city policy posed by Borrello.
"Do you stand on the policy that New York City should remain a sanctuary city?" Borrello asked, according to The Post.
"Yes, I do. I think that being a sanctuary city is the origin of all of us," Adams said. "All of us came from some level of immigration, but I think that those who come here and abuse our good nature, they need to be dealt with on the federal level and deported."
Gov. Kathy Hochul presents her budget at the state Capitol on Jan. 16, 2024, in Albany. New York state has vowed to contribute about $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2025 toward the migrant crisis. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
The policy was also raised by state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Democrat from Queens who said Adams was asking New York state taxpayers to send billions of dollars to support a "self-created crisis."
"It’s a law that he and the New York City Council have no interest in fixing," Ramos said. "I would very much like to see the mayor stop wasting money putting up tents, taking down tents, moving people around and like they’re cattle."
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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