New York Mayor Eric Adams’ chief adviser has called on the Biden administration to close the border – before a panicked City Hall was forced to withdraw her comments despite the Big Apple being flooded with asylum seekers.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin made the comments on Sunday as she discussed the crisis that has seen more than 116,000 migrants arrive in the city in 18 months, with more than 60,000 still in the city’s care. The Adams administration is currently trying to change the city’s Right to Shelter law to not accept new migrants — a stunning reversal considering both the Democratic mayor and governor first welcomed the asylum seekers with open arms.
“It would alleviate the situation to the extent that others wouldn’t be as willing and able to come to New York City because they know, ‘They’re not going to give us shelter,'” Martin said when asked about the right to travel to change. shelter law. ‘We have to find a way to make them understand, we are no longer responsible for you, you have to find other ways. Go to another state.”
However, Marin added that the federal government should ultimately be in control of the situation as it demanded the borders be closed.
“We need the federal government, members of Congress, the Senate and the president to do their job: close the borders,” she told PIX11.
New York Mayor Eric Adams’ chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has called on the Biden administration to close the border
More than 116,000 migrants arrive in the city in 18 months, of which more than 60,000 are still in the city’s care
Vice Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy quickly pushed back on Martin’s comments, clarifying that the mayor believes that “this country must, of course, continue to welcome immigrants – both those who seek asylum and those who do not.”
The contradictory comments from Adams staffers come as one county in the state has blocked the mayor’s efforts to send some asylum seekers to the city up north.
Last week, Adams announced plans to issue housing vouchers for migrants outside New York’s five boroughs to use, but Oneida County Republican Executive Anthony Picente responded with an emergency order saying he would have to approve all vouchers, and that he would only do this after taking the needy locals with him. care, as reported by the Oneida Daily Dispatch.
“This is just a veiled attempt by Mayor Adams to pass on New York City’s migrant crisis to counties across the state,” Picente said. “This action is due to the complete failure of federal government policy and the lack of leadership in Albany.”
The New York government is desperately trying to tell asylum seekers to choose another city as record numbers of migrants continue to cross the US-Mexico border.
More than 200,000 migrants who entered the U.S. illegally were processed in September, illustrating the severity of the border crisis that the Biden administration is struggling to contain.
Adams’ administration announced Wednesday that it would distribute flyers at shelters and at the southern border, warning migrants they will not receive free housing in the Big Apple.
Vice Mayor for Health and Human Services Ana Williams Isom showed off the updated flyers at a city council meeting and said they would be used to combat “misinformation” coming from social media or human traffickers about migrant services in the city.
The city had already distributed similar flyers in July to discourage asylum seekers at the border, but the updated message is much blunter
As the city ran out of space, landmarks such as the Roosevelt Hotel were transformed into emergency shelters
More than 200,000 migrants who entered the US illegally were processed in September
“We will be distributing these flyers at our shelters and shelters in New York City, as well as through NGOs and nonprofits across the country,” she told the meeting. “We know that there are people in our shelters who are telling their family members that they need to come to New York City and that they will be provided with housing…that has never been the case, but we want to make sure that we are clear with people that New York City has run out of room.”
One of the messages on the flyers reads: ‘NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world; you’re better off going to a cheaper city.’
It’s not the right message — while Adams has tried to get the Right to Shelter police suspended as he deals with the influx of migrants, the law is still in effect, meaning the city must provide shelter to anyone who asks for it.
As the city ran out of space, landmarks such as the Roosevelt Hotel were transformed into emergency shelters. NYC currently pays hotels an average of $185 per day per room, and spends approximately $385 per night per migrant family in need of housing and food. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers cost the city about $10 million every day.
Adams has said the crisis will cost the city $12 billion over three years.
Both city and state governments first welcomed asylum seekers sent to northern sanctuary cities by Republican governors fed up with what they saw as Democrats’ open-arm immigration policies.
Mayor Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul first said they were proud to lead the city’s Right to Shelter, citing the Statue of Liberty’s message about taking in the “poor, tired and hungry.”
But more than 100,000 arrivals later, both Adams and Hochul have repeatedly told asylum seekers there is no room for them in New York.
Since July, Adams has been telling migrants that the city is almost full, and warned that if the situation continues to escalate without federal help, the crisis would “destroy” the city.
New York City’s migrant crisis is expected to cost the city $4.7 billion this year. Above is a list of some of the landmarks that have been converted into emergency shelters as officials struggle to house nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s care
However, the city has secretly renewed its contracts using its more than 100 hotels as emergency shelters, and plans to spend as much as $1 billion more on hotel rooms for immigrants for three more years.
The city’s contract, which was set to expire this year, now expires in August 2026 and will cost a total of $1.365 billion — nearly five times the original price tag of $237 million.
The new charges do not include other facilities that have been converted into shelters, such as the tent shelters set up at the McCarren Recreation Center in Queens or the Island Shores Assisted Living on Staten Island.
Mayor Eric Adams said on September 9 that spending would be cut by 15 percent through next spring to cope with an influx of 116,000 migrants in 2023, with 60,000 of the city’s desperate people housed.
Adams — who is up for re-election in 2025 — told city agencies they would each have to cut spending by 5 percent by November. There will then be another 5 percent cut in January and a final hack in April.