Mayor Adams admitted Tuesday that his trip to Latin America may not have actually worked in convincing migrants to stop coming to the Big Apple, which was a key rationale offered by City Hall for making the sojourn.
Hizzoner’s remarks came just hours after The Post and other outlets published interviews with migrants in the region who are desperate for jobs and were either unaware the mayor’s visit or undeterred from making the dangerous trip northward to the United States.
“Was it successful 100%? I don’t know that. We’re not going to know,” he said when asked if he did enough to convince migrants not to come.
“Is someone going to hear the voice of the mayor of the city saying ‘you’re not going to come to a five-star hotel’? I’m hoping they did,” he continued. “But I have to try everything to help this city deal with this crisis that we’re facing.”
Adams’ handling of the crisis has come under intense scrutiny as the number of arrivals continues to climb, neighborhoods have begun forcefully pushing back against new shelters opening and as his administration has threatened 15% budget cuts to free up the $12 billion it says it will need to care for the migrants over the next three years.
Sources at the time said the very reason for Adams’ trip was to bring his message that New York no longer has the resources to house or care for additional migrants directly to the people about to make the dangerous journey, in part by using local Spanish-language media.
Hizzoner attempted to recast and broaden the rationale on Tuesday in light of the coverage that followed — saying that it was also a fact-finding mission and to develop relationships with local officials.
“Generals lead from the front,” he argued. “You cannot learn this from just reading about it.”
When asked how much taxpayers shelled out for the trip, Adams declined to say.
He said that he and several top aides paid their own way, before talking about the costly security needs required to travel safely in that part of the world — all without putting a price tag on it.
Officials estimates that nearly 120,000 migrants have come to the five boroughs since the crisis began roughly a year-and-a-half ago and roughly half, 63,000, remain in the city’s care.
However, there’s been little support from the federal government to help City Hall pick up the multi-billion dollar tab.
The Biden administration finally granted a long-standing request from Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul and local politicians to allow the thousands of Venezuelans who arrived in the United States before July 31 to apply for work papers.
Otherwise, Adams has been fiercely critical of Biden for only dolling out or promising less than $150 million to help cover the budget gap.
By comparison, Hochul and Albany lawmakers have set aside $1 billion to reimburse city expenses and signaled that more help will likely be in the next state budget.
City Hall revealed last week there’s been a surge recently with the number of arrivals climbing from as few as 300 a day to upwards of 600 a day.
“It is a very frustrating moment for all New Yorkers,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said during that news conference, which took place just days before Adams announced his visit. “We have been responding to this crisis, managing the inflow – and here we are again seeing spikes in arrival numbers.”