Mayor Adams Reams State and Federal Governments for Offering No Help Whatsoever for Migrants

By Yehudit Garmaise

Without help from the federal and NY state governments, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams has helped 86,000 migrants, or 56% of the asylum seekers get settled elsewhere, the mayor pointed out yesterday,

Empathizing with New Yorkers’ anger and resentment about the budget cuts to city services that are necessary as a result of both the illegal migrants and the overspending of the previous administration, Mayor Adams said at his weekly press conference at City Hall, “I respect how New Yorkers are feeling.”

New Yorkers often stop the mayor on the train, he said, to ask him, “Why are you allowing in the buses [of migrants], Eric? Why aren't you stopping them from coming in? Why aren't you turning them around? 

“Why aren't you saying that you are not going to give them housing, and other things?”

New York City, the mayor explained, is bearing the financial and physical brunt of the open immigration policies of the federal government, which refuses to pay for the migrant crisis it created.

“I don't have deportation powers,” Mayor Adams said. “I don't have the power to turn buses around. 

“I don't have the power to say we're not going to give you some form of housing. All I have the power to do is to balance the budget every two years.”

No one in City Hall, the mayor said wants to cut crucial city services, the mayor said, “but we have a $7 billion budget deficit.”

To recover the $7 billion gap in New York City’s budget, NYC’s Budget Director Jacques Jiha created a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG,) but thankfully, he and the mayor decided that neither Police, Fire, nor Sanitation will suffer any cuts in PEG’s  “next round.”

To advocate for federal funds for New York City, Mayor Adams has headed to Washington, DC, 10 times, he said.

“The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and the closed mouth does not get fed,” explained Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s chief advisor.

The mayor, however, has not found Biden’s administration forthcoming.

“Walking out of D.C. each time,” the mayor said ruefully, I did not see the federal government express any urgency [to help us].”

While speaking with other big city mayors at holiday events in Washington, DC, Mayor Adams said all American mayors “are they're expressing the same frustration that cities should not be carrying the burden of a national crisis. 

“When I left D.C., I did not walk out and think, “You know, the Calvary is coming.”