Mayor Eric Adams gave a solemn warning of the “nightmare” in pursuing the “American Dream” while speaking in Mexico City Wednesday — hours before four buses of newly arrived migrants unloaded in Port Authority.
Hizzoner made late-night remarks outside of Basílica de Guadalupe — noting he felt it was significant he begins his four-day Latin America jaunt at the church where so many migrants go to pray before beginning their pilgrimage.
“We are in a period of time, I believe, where prayer works. And there’s a level of compassion that we must show each other as we deal with the humanitarian crisis that not only sweeps in their region but across the globe,” Adams said.
Adams stressed he hoped to be “honest” about the realities migrants would face as the daily number of asylum seekers arriving soars with 800 more migrants entering in a single day, twice above the previous average.
“Our country is always a country that has been open to the immigrant population. We want to make sure that we have a great level of transparency and the challenges that we are facing, so that people can manage their expectations as they are on this extremely important journey for many of them, and in some cases are very dangerous,” Adams said.
“I say to those who are pursuing the American dream, it should not turn into a nightmare,” he added.
Officials have warned New York City is “at capacity” — with about 3,700 migrants entering in the week ending Oct. 1 adding to the over 118,400 asylum seekers who have arrived since the spring of 2022.
At least four buses were seen arriving Thursday morning to Port Authority, as Adams administration officials brace for even more potentially record-breaking arrivals in the coming weeks.
“The message of this not being sustainable cannot stay within the boundaries of New York City,” Adams said, adding that he spoke with other leaders during the United Nations General Assembly about how to better address global migration.
“There is [sic] enough resources across the globe to address this issue. And I think that there needs to be a global response to it and I’m going to do all I can to really send a message out to all of the countries that are doing well that we have an obligation to deal with this global migration,” he said.
Adams says he intends to learn more about the dangerous path asylum seekers are taking to get to the southern border during his trip, which was in part inspired by his visit to El Paso.
“I felt clearly, it was time to grow beyond the safety of just El Paso, I needed to go to those countries that were really impacted. Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, to further my understanding of exactly what is feeding this migrant crisis that we are experiencing here in this region,” he said.
On Thursday, the mayor will visit migrant sites south of the border at Puebla, Mexico, before jetting to Quito, Ecuador, the following day.
He will spend his final day in Bogotá, Colombia, where he plans to head to the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle path that smugglers use to bring many asylum seekers from South to North America.