Eric Adams told an audience in Washington DC on Friday that New York City was “devastated by the migrant crisis” as he moved to secure federal funding for his city.
The mayor earlier this week accused the Biden administration of turning its back on New York, which currently hosts 34,800 migrants in 112 shelters. More than 56,000 migrants have arrived in the city in the past 12 months.
Adams has ordered city agencies to take $4 billion from their budgets over the next four years to pay for the humanitarian efforts.
In the eight months to March, the city spent $817 million to handle the wave of arrivals — many of them traveling to New York City on buses under a plan devised by the governors of Texas and Arizona to to make Democrats understand their struggles.
Adams told a panel discussion Friday, “The city is being devastated by the migrant crisis.”
Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, speaks Friday at the meeting of the African American Mayors’ Association in Washington DC
Adams (left) said not enough was being done to help New York City with migrants
Biden met with some mayors on Friday, but Adams did not attend
He angrily lashed out at his own colleagues, saying, “And neither of my parents came to Washington DC to fight for the resources that will undermine every agency in our city.”
Adams said he told the public he would have presided over a miraculous post-pandemic recovery, had it not been for the migrant costs.
“If you remove the $4.2 billion dollars dropped in my city over a mismanaged asylum seeker issue, you would [would have] probably witnessed one of the largest fiscal turnarounds in New York City history,” he said.
His remarks echo those made on Wednesday when he accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to prevent illegal border crossings, leading to “one of the biggest humanitarian crises this city has ever seen.”
Adams said Joe Biden, pictured Friday, was not doing enough to secure the border
Some of the many migrants bussed into New York from the southern US border sit among belongings and sleeping bags outside 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 will be affected by the asylum seekers crisis.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called on state, city and federal authorities to share the costs of dealing with the migrants equally.
The city has applied for $654 million in FEMA grant funding, but a decision won’t be made until May 31.
The mayor has repeatedly expressed frustration at the lack of meaningful help from the Biden administration to curb the issue that has been straining the city’s resources and residents for months.
Now two more migrant shelters will appear in a busy part of the city.
The vacant Candler Tower office building in Times Square, once home to a 24-hour McDonald’s, will now house hundreds, if not thousands, of the city’s illegal migrants.
The fast food joint, once heralded as one of McDonald’s busiest and most profitable models, closed during the June 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns.
And the building’s owner, UK-based investment firm EPIC, signed the deed last March to avoid foreclosure, according to a New York Post report.
The other shelter will be in a six-story commercial building in Brooklyn.
The McDonald’s that closed in Times Square last year will now be used to host some of the 30,000 migrants the city now cares for
Adams is photographed in February at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, now used to host migrants but then used to host New York City’s homeless population
Most of the other emergency shelters used to house migrants in the city are in hotels.
An Indian immigrant who works at a 42nd Street kiosk near the defunct McDonald’s said the migrants could be a boon to his business, but could also boost crime in the tourist area.
“If there are protests or crime, visitors from other countries will stop coming to New York,” said Hossain, 49. the mail.
“If the immigrants behave and are nice, it won’t be a problem… If they get a job, it won’t be a problem. If they get everything and have nothing to do, you’re in trouble.’
Queens City Councilman Robert Holden, a Democrat, expressed frustration with the mayor’s decision to house even more migrants — stretching the city’s already depleted resources even further.
‘We are now going to house them in retail spaces, business premises. Where will it end and when will the taxpayer get a break here?’ he asked.
“This is a problem that the Biden administration has 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 country, but as the number of asylum seekers continues to grow, we urgently need 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 nearly decade-long backlog means some migrants without valid asylum applications may choose New York City in a bid to avoid an immigration court, possibly forever.