New York mayor visits Texas border and criticizes federal response to migrants

EL PASO, Texas. During a visit to the Texas border city of El Paso, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was highly critical of the federal government’s response to the influx of immigrants into U.S. cities, saying, “We need clear coordination.”

On Sunday, he said that cities where immigrants flow need help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Our cities are undermined. And we didn’t deserve it. Migrants don’t deserve it. And people who live in cities don’t deserve that,” Adams said, wrapping up a weekend visit to El Paso. “We expect more from our national leaders to really address this issue.”

Adams said New York was overwhelmed. New York has received about 40,000 asylum seekers since last spring, Adams said, and last week, about 840 asylum seekers arrived in a single day.

“New York can’t take it anymore. We can’t,” Adams said, adding that other cities can’t take more either.

“No city deserves what is happening,” he said.

Adams, a Democrat, also criticized the practice of some governors to transport immigrants directly from the border to cities, including New York. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has sent busloads of immigrants to Democratic-led cities over the past year to expose as much as possible what he says is the Biden administration’s inaction on large numbers of migrants crossing the southern border.

Adams noted that the Democratic governor of Colorado also took migrants to New York. He said the actions of the two governors showed “a bipartisan disrespect for the cities, and it was wrong.”

Adams said the federal government should shoulder the costs that cities incur to help.

“We need a real leadership moment from FEMA,” he said. “This is a national crisis.”

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden also visited El Paso.