Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted President Joe Biden for failing to address the migrant situation as New York City suffers from extreme budget cuts to accommodate the $7 billion deficit.
Officials said the city has seen more than 150,000 migrant arrivals since the spring of last year, and more than 67,000 immigrants are staying in city homeless shelters. Adams said, “New Yorkers are angry,” and that he’s had to steer the city through the situation without adequate support from the federal government.
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“We had to do a real job of explaining to everyday New Yorkers that the federal government has abandoned this important issue that's a national issue,” Adams said on PIX 11's PIX on Politics on Sunday.
Tensions between the Biden administration and Adams have spiked this year as the nation’s immigration system becomes increasingly strained. Large blue cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Denver are struggling to provide housing and social services as they welcome thousands of immigrants.
“I find it baffling because now you are hearing the coalitions that started out with Eric, now that coalition has grown to Chicago, Massachusetts, Denver, all over, so many municipalities are joining me and saying, ‘This is impacting our city,’ so I’m not sure why we’re not seeing a response,” Adams said on ABC 7 on Sunday.
In November, the mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, and Los Angeles joined Adams and wrote a letter to Biden asking for a meeting to address migrant matters. Adams was absent from the meetings in Washington, D.C., while the other four mayors met with members of the Biden administration but not the president himself.
The New York City mayor has pressured the Biden administration to fund and speed up work visas for immigrants.
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“They're watching them say [immigrants] want to work and they're not being allowed to work, and then they're watching the cuts in their services,” Adams said.
Adams said that “some people see this as a policy and not an urgency,” adding talks about policy changes need to happen but that “real immigration reform” is needed now.