Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday refused to place any blame on President Biden for the surge of migrants crossing the US southern border — even though a record 13,000 have now been shipped to New York City — many by the federal government and charity groups — as the ongoing crisis continues to escalate.
Adams claimed the influx of migrants being bused to the Big Apple from US border states was just a “political stunt” driven by GOP governors — and not because of the open-border policy the Democrats have been pushing.
“No, I think what we’re seeing in the city is a political stunt,” Hizzoner said when asked how much responsibility the Biden administration bore for the current migrant disaster.
When pressed if the current administration should be doing more at the border to stem the influx of migrants, Adams again deflected blame from Biden, saying: “I think it’s crucial that we coordinate as a country to deal with the asylum seekers and the migrants.”
A record 13,000 migrants have now come to the Big Apple after crossing the southern border as the numbers only continue to surge, Adams said. About 9,500 of those migrants are currently in city shelters, he added.
The mayor has repeatedly blamed the ongoing influx of migrants for overwhelming the city shelter system and getting it to near “breaking point.”
Despite this, Adams still agreed to accept migrants sent by his Democratic counterpart in El Paso — even though he has previously slammed Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over a similar relocation program.
Adams has also lashed out at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his recent move to ship nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Florida to Martha’s Vineyard last week.
“I mean, what was his purpose of sending a plane load to Martha’s Vineyard, he just felt as though he wanted to get into this horrendous action,” Adams said Tuesday of DeSantis.
“Right now my focus is on what’s creating a crisis in New York City and the crisis that’s been created in New York City is coming from a governor who is fueling the crisis and he was intentional about what he was doing,” he continued.
“My concern is not to try to figure out national politics. My concern is to address the crisis that I have here, right here in New York City.”
Adams’ refusal to weigh in on whether Biden is to blame for lifting his predecessor’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers comes as migrant arrest numbers have almost doubled under the current administration, according to the latest Customs and Border Protection data.
So far this fiscal year, Border Patrol agents have reported more than 1.94 million encounters at the border, which is up from the 1.73 million encounters in all of 2021 and just over 458,000 in 2020.
Despite the surge in crossings, the White House has still repeatedly tried to lift Title 42 — the COVID health order that was put in place in early 2020 by former President Donald Trump as a way to quickly send migrants back across the border without hearing their asylum claims.
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Louisiana blocked the administration’s push to end the order earlier this year.
The administration did quietly end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy in August, which saw asylum-seekers having to enroll in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program and force them to await their immigration hearings.
