

Biden vs. NYC: Federal officials knock Adams and Hochul for long list of failures helping immigrants

The Biden administration called out Democratic leaders in New York following state and local officials' complaints that the federal government had failed to help the sanctuary zone respond to its immigrant crisis, even after receiving $100 million in aid from Congress in June.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sent letters to Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday in response to the two officials demanding for months that Washington do more to help the state respond to 100,000 illegal immigrants who have shown up in the past two years after being released from the border, according to a Politico report.
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Mayorkas not only defended the federal government's response but went on to list 24 operational and structural problems within the state and city's responses.
“The structural issues include governance and organization of the migrant operations, including issues of authority, structure, personnel, and information flow,” Mayorkas said in the letters. “The operational issues include the subjects of data collection, planning, case management, communications, and other aspects of day-to-day operations.”
The DHS said the 24 ways the city had fallen short of doing its job were unearthed during the department's weeklong assessment of city and state operations earlier this month.
“We are hopeful that our recommendations will equip the city to take additional steps to improve the migrant operations and maximize the value of our continued partnership and your support,” Mayorkas said.
A DHS spokesperson downplayed the list of failures in the letters and told the Washington Examiner Monday afternoon that the department's expert team was, in fact, "impressed with the exceptional efforts" that New York officials had taken to deal with so many homeless immigrants.
The DHS did not provide a copy of either letter, but it said the recommendations included improving how the city collects information from immigrants at initial intake and while they are in shelters and better communicating with immigrants how to obtain work documents and phasing out the city's shelter program, making case management and legal services available at multiple shelters.
Mayorkas has refused to call the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border a "crisis" for more than 30 months in which more than 6 million people have been encountered attempting to enter the country without permission. More than 2 million of those encountered were released into the U.S. to await court hearings for unlawful entry, not for years down the road due to the massive backlog before immigration judges.
Last week, Hochul targeted the White House as the reason for the crisis and said during a speech that the problem "originated with the federal government, and it must be resolved with the federal government.”
The state has asked the Biden administration to identify federal land where it can erect temporary housing for the 59,000 immigrants currently in the city's shelters. At present, the city has housed immigrants in 194 sites.
Mayorkas told the officials that the Biden administration had offered a hangar at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens that was capable of housing 800 single men. The Biden administration has identified 11 federal sites across the state where the city could house immigrants, including the Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, according to DHS.
But Adams pushed back at Washington in a statement to the Washington Examiner Monday afternoon.
"New York City has led the nation in handling this humanitarian crisis for more than a year, and we are grateful that our federal partners are now engaging in a collaborative process, but New Yorkers deserve the facts, so let’s be clear: Our requests from the federal government remain the same, and quite frankly, unaddressed," an Adams spokesperson wrote in an email.
"We continue to call on the Biden administration to take the lead in implementing a decompression strategy at the border, expedite pathways to work authorizations for asylum seekers, to declare a state of emergency facilitating swift allocation of federal funds to address our pressing challenges, and to provide more funding to match the reality of the course on the ground," the NYC spokesperson said. "Today’s conversation also did not address the situation on the ground where thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive in our city with no end in sight."
In addition to the logistical nightmare, New York officials also face increasing public pushback over this problem.
Police in New York City braced Monday for what could be the city's largest protest over Adams's handling of the immigrant crisis. The large majority of protesters at gatherings in recent weeks have largely opposed the city's housing immigrants in the area.
The New York Police Department expects roughly 2,000 people to gather at 6 p.m. local time Monday to protest his administration housing immigrants who arrived in the city after illegally crossing the southern border, according to a report from local news station Fox-5 Monday morning. The site of the protest has not been publicized.
The 2,000 potential attendees would make it by far the largest demonstration since residents began organizing this summer.
On Sunday, five protesters were arrested outside Gracie Mansion, including the 2022 Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa led the demonstrations for several weeks at various locations across New York City.
Protesters had gathered to voice opposition to the city's housing immigrants on Staten Island.
Sliwa, 69, was charged with obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
Sliwa has criticized Adams for stating that he would house immigrants at Gracie Mansion and then saying he was not allowed to do so.
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"The next day, he flipped his script and said he can't do that. Who told you you can't do that? You're the mayor," Sliwa said.
The NYPD and governor's office did not respond to a request for comment.