NYC Mayor Eric Adams Criticizes White House for Border Crisis

Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, speaks at the Literacy Partners 2023 Gala at Cipriani South Street in New York on May 1, 2023. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Literacy Partners)

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams said President Joe Biden’s administration is partly to blame for the country’s struggles to handle asylum seekers and illegal border crossers attempting to enter the United States.

Adams fielded questions about America’s immigration and border security policies during a Tuesday press conference. During the press conference, reporters asked Adams about his criticism of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been sending busloads of migrants from his state to other parts of the country. One reporter asked Adams whether his criticisms of Abbott’s migrant busing policies could inflame anti-immigrant sentiments in New York.

Adams denied that his criticisms have ever been directed at migrants.

“It is not about the asylum-seekers and migrants, all of us came from somewhere to pursue the American Dream,” Adams said. “It is the irresponsibility of the Republican Party in Washington for refusing to do real immigration reform, and it’s the irresponsibility of the White House for not addressing this problem.”

In his comments, Adams laid the blame for the present immigration and border security situation at the feet of both Republicans and the presidential administration of his fellow Democrat, Biden.

The New York City mayor’s comments came about two months after he joined an advisory board promoting Biden’s 2024 reelection bid. Adams has targeted the Biden administration in his previous criticisms of the situation at the U.S. southern border. He told the New York Post that his role as a Biden campaign adviser would not prevent him from pressuring Biden to help New York City address an influx of migrant arrivals.

NTD News reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.

Adams Slams Migrant Busing to NYC

Many of the questions Adams faced during his Tuesday press conference focused on his criticism of migrant buses arriving in New York City. On Monday, Adams posted on Twitter that Abbott was sending new busloads of migrants to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

“It is also impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors,” Adams’ Monday post reads. “Put plainly, Abbott is using this crisis to hurt Black-run cities.”

Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants to other states for months now and has targeted self-described “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities that might arrest or deport illegal immigrants. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. have all described themselves as sanctuary cities in the past.

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has similarly criticized Abbott for sending migrant buses to her city. On Sunday, Lightfoot sent Abbott a letter pleading with the Texas governor not to send the migrant buses.

“Since we began responding to the arrival of migrants sent by your delegation in August 2022, we have shouldered the responsibility of caring for more than 8,000 men, women, and children with no resources of their own. That number continues to grow,” Lightfoot wrote.

Abbott responded to Lightfoot’s letter, saying, “As the mayor of a self-declared sanctuary city, it is ironic to hear you complain about Chicago’s struggle to deal with a few thousand illegal immigrants, which is a fraction of the record-high numbers we deal with in Texas on a regular basis.”

Abbott told Lightfoot that if she really wants to reach a solution, she “must call on the Biden administration to do its job by securing our border.”

Biden’s Border Plan

The Biden administration has been preparing several new policies in hopes of reducing the number of illegal border crossings and the overall rush of migrants to the U.S. southern border.

One component of Biden’s plan entails the rollout of a parole program that allows up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba to enter the United States each month and stay and work for up to two years. But the Biden administration has insisted that the parole program will be available only to those who enter the country through a legal process and that those caught entering the United States illegally will be expelled and barred from reentry through the parole program.

Another Biden administration policy would generally require asylum seekers to have applied for asylum in any countries they passed through on their way to the United States. U.S. immigration authorities would presume an asylum applicant is ineligible for entry if they did not apply for asylum in other third-party countries, though applicants could still argue a case for why they should be given asylum status in the United States.

Last week, Biden also authorized the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy reserve troops to the U.S. southern border to assist border officials in countering cross-border drug trafficking.

Republican lawmakers recently introduced the Border Reinforcement Act of 2023 as an alternative to Biden’s border policies. The Republican bill would provide more funding to resume border wall construction and expand Border Patrol’s staff to 22,000 agents.

From NTD News