NYC Mayor Eric Adams slams Biden for 'destroying' the Big Apple by fueling the migrant crisis - and his pleas for federal aid fall on deaf ears
Eric Adams is in Washington DC for a series of meetings and on Friday complained that not enough was being done to help with the migrant crisis. New York City is currently housing 34,000 migrants in 112 shelters: in the last 12 months, more than 56,000 migrants have passed through NYC.Adams said 'the city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,' and has ordered city agencies to cut $4 billion from their budgets over the next four years to pay
By Harriet Alexander
Daily Mail
April 22, 2023
Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, is seen on Friday speaking at the African American Mayors' Association meeting, in Washington DC
Eric Adams on Friday told an audience in Washington DC that New York City was being 'destroyed by the migrant crisis', as he set out to secure federal finance for his city.
The mayor earlier this week accused the Biden administration of turning its back on New York, which is currently housing 34,800 migrants in 112 shelters. In the last 12 months, more than 56,000 migrants have arrived in the city.
Adams has ordered city agencies to cut $4 billion from their budgets over the next four years to pay for the humanitarian effort.
In the eight months to March, the city spent $817 million on dealing with the surge in arrivals - many of them bussed to New York City under a scheme hatched by the governors of Texas and Arizona, to make Democrats understand their struggle.
Adams on Friday told a panel discussion: 'The city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis.'
Adams (left) said that not enough was being done to help New York City with migrants
Biden on Friday met with some of the mayors - but Adams was not present
He angrily hit out at his own colleagues, saying: 'And none of my folks came to Washington DC to fight for the resources that's going to undermine every agency in our city.'
Adams said told the audience that he would have presided over a miraculous post-pandemic recovery, if it wasn't for the migrant costs.
'If you removed the $4.2 billion dollars that have been dropped into my city because of a mismanaged asylum seeker issue, you [would have] probably witnessed one of the greatest fiscal turnarounds in the history of New York City,' he said.
His comments echo those made on Wednesday, when he accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to prevent illegal border crossings, triggering 'one of the largest humanitarian crises that this city has ever experienced.'
Adams said that Joe Biden, pictured on Friday, was not doing enough to secure the border
Some of the many migrants who have been bused to New York from the southern US border sit amongst belongings and sleeping bags outside of The Watson Hotel on West 57th Street in February
There are currently 34,000 migrants in New York City being housed in 112 shelters
He added: 'The national government has turned its back on New York City. Every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.'
Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has called for the state, city and federal authorities to split the costs of dealing with the migrants equally.
The city has applied for $654 million in FEMA grant money, but a decision will not be made until May 31.
The mayor has repeatedly expressed his frustration at the lack of meaningful assistance provided by the Biden administration to help curb the issue that has burdened the city's resources and residents for months.
Now, two more migrant shelters are set to pop up in a busy part of town.
The vacant Candler Tower office building in Times Square that was once home to a 24-hour McDonald's will now house hundreds if not thousands of the city's illegal migrant population.
The fast-food joint, once billed as one of the busiest and most profitable models of McDonald's, shut down during the June 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns.
And the building's owner, UK-based investment company EPIC, signed over the deed last March to avoid foreclosure, according to a report from the New York Post.
The other shelter will be located in a six-story commercial building in Brooklyn.
The McDonald's that shuttered last year in Times Square will now be used to shelter some of the 30,000 migrants for whom the city is now caring
Adams is pictured in February at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, which is now being used to shelter migrants, but was then being used to shelter New York City's homeless population
Most of the other emergency shelters being used to house migrants across the city are located in hotels.
One Indian immigrant who works at a newsstand on 42nd Street near the defunct McDonald's said that the migrants may be a boon for his business, but could also potentially boost crime in the tourist-heavy area.
'If there are protests or crime, people visiting from other countries won't keep coming back to New York,' Hossain, 49 said, according to the Post.
'If the immigrants behave and are nice it will not be a problem…If they are given jobs it will not be a problem. When they’re given everything and have nothing to do, that’s when you get problems.'
City Councilman Robert Holden of Queens, a Democrat, offered up his frustration with the mayor's move to house even more migrants - stretching even further the city's already drained resources.
'We're now going to house them in retail spaces, commercial spaces. Where does it end and when does the taxpayer get a break here?' he asked.
'This is a problem that the Biden administration created and the government should foot the bill and have a plan to feed and house them,' he added.
The mayor recently said: 'We continue to do more than any other city in the nation, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we are in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments.'
It was also recently revealed that the city's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office is 'fully booked through October 2032' to process migrants seeking asylum in the US.
The near decade-long backlog means that some migrants without valid asylum claims may select New York City in an effort to avoid facing an immigration judge, possibly forever.
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