Mayor Eric Adams deserves praise for calling out the Biden administration’s lack of financial support for New York and other cities as they cope with a massive influx of migrants, former Gov. David Paterson said Sunday.
“Washington is what’s pushing these mayors not to turn their backs on the migrants, but Washington isn’t giving them any help, so I admire that Mayor Adams, you know, kind of, let them know that he’s keeping score here,” Paterson said during an appearance on WABC Radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” in reference to comments by Hizzoner earlier this week.
Adams, who was touring the US-Mexico border over the weekend, has said the migrant crisis could cost New York City “anywhere from $1.5 to $2 billion.”
“The mayor introduced his budget which would be $103 billion dollars, and he talked about all the aid that we gave to migrants and made a plea to Washington that we need more money,” Paterson explained on Sunday.
Adams’ new budget proposed cuts to just about every city agency, without accounting for the estimate cost of the ongoing migrant crisis.
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City officials have said the city faces a “perfect storm of slowing revenue and rising costs.” They estimate the number of migrants seeking shelter in New York will reach 100,000 this year.
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Adams on Friday called the situation “unsustainable,” but stopped short of calling out Biden by name.
“This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America, and it’s being accelerated by American political dynamics,” he said.
“I think the issue is to do a decompression strategy from the national government to make sure that we could, we can ensure that these asylum seekers are spread throughout the entire country.”
