Mayor Adams Pleads for Federal and State Help to Address Illegal Immigrant Crisis

New York mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference in New York on Nov. 21, 2022. NYC Office of the Mayor via AP

While hosting a question-and-answer with the media at City Hall on Jan. 18, New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged President Joe Biden to appoint a border czar and send taxpayer dollars to help the city deal with an influx of illegal aliens.

Adams made the request even though in March of 2020, President Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to serve as the point person for the administration in matters involving the southern border.

In a Jan. 13 news release, Adams said the crisis is “pushing New York to the brink” and that the “city is experiencing more people arrive than we have ever seen — averaging over 400 people each day this last week, with 835 asylum seekers arriving on one single day alone, the largest single-day arrival we’ve seen to date. ”

The mayor added, “Since last spring, the city has stepped up to welcome approximately 40,000 asylum seekers, providing them with shelter, food, and connections to a host of resources.”

Adams has also reached out to New York state for help.,

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, joined Adams putting pressure on Washington to deliver resources and solutions to alleviate the strain a rapidly growing illegal immigrant population is placing on the city.

GOP Response to ‘Open Borders’

New York and its ongoing illegal immigration duress come as the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced on Thursday that it will hold a hearing to investigate and dig into policies of the Biden administration, which has ostensibly, according to Republican legislators, resulted in an “open” southern border.

“President Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said in the release announcing the hearing.

“The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws.”

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, speaks to reporters on his way to a closed-door GOP caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 10, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

After illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico, illegal immigrants travel to New York with the assistance of family and friends or human services organizations. They have also been bussed to the city by Republican governors of border states: Greg Abbott of Texas, and Arizona’s Doug Ducey, whom Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs succeeded in office earlier this month.

Other cities to which the GOP governors bussed illegal immigrants include Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

In September, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a chartered plane with 49 illegal immigrants on board to the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.

Adams Visits the Border

Adams visited El Paso, Texas, last weekend to view the border situation and use the opportunity to repeat his call that Washington provide New York with $2 billion to deal with the emergency.

On Wednesday, Adams referenced his trip to El Paso and addressed what he calls the “asylum seeker crisis” in a speech in New York at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“Just a few days ago, I was in El Paso to see for myself how the asylum seeker crisis is affecting our border states and our entire nation,” said Adams.

“What I saw was not a state problem or a city problem. It is a national problem, driven by global forces, impacting regular people.”

Major Change Needed

Adams declaring that “right-wing opposition” is primarily to blame for the illegal immigrant crisis is particularly annoying for lawmakers, municipal officials, and citizens along the nation’s southern border who have long had to deal with resources and services stretched thin.

Crime coming across the border—a significant component of which is drug and human trafficking— imperils the safety of Americans.

The bussing of illegal immigrants to New York City is part of a broader initiative by Republicans intended to relieve the pressure on border areas of and call attention to the crisis.

It is also an effort to cite the “do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do” positions of blue-state politicians and bureaucrats who they contend have done little to address the humanitarian emergency while leveling criticism that GOP lawmakers are uncaring and anti-immigrant and motivated by bigotry.

On November 15, Governor Abbott’s office issued a press release announcing Texas sending its first busload of illegal immigrants to Philadelphia.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference in Houston, Texas, on Sept. 13, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

“Since April, Texas’ busing strategy has successfully provided much-needed relief to our border communities overwhelmed by the historic influx of migrants caused by President Biden’s reckless open border policies,” Governor Abbott said in a statement.

“Until the Biden Administration does its job and provides Texans and the American people with sustainable border security, Texas will continue doing more than any other state in the nation’s history to defend against an invasion along the border, including adding more sanctuary cities like Philadelphia as drop-off locations for our busing strategy.”