New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday criticized President Biden for not adequately dealing with the influx of migrants into the city.
“We had to do a real job of explaining to everyday New Yorkers that the federal government had abandoned this important issue that’s a national issue,” Mr. Adams said on PIX 11’s “PIX on Politics.”
The Democratic mayor and the president have been at odds over the lackluster federal response to the migrant crisis. Mr. Adams has repeatedly asked the president for funds to deal with the issue and to figure out a way to reduce the number of migrants the city is hosting — more than 120,000 over the past year.
New Yorkers are “angry,” he said.
“I believe that we are not seeing that this should not be on the backs of New York City; and other cities, because now the coalition has grown,” Mr. Adams said. “Remember, I was by myself at one time. Now you see mayors of Chicago, you’re seeing Massachusetts electeds, Denver. People are realizing this is unfair to cities across America.”
In November, Democratic mayors of Chicago, New York, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles sent a letter to Mr. Biden urging him to make more efforts to help the migrant crisis in their cities.
Last month, the mayor’s administration announced budget cuts that will affect many city agencies including police, fire, sanitation and education departments. The cuts are driven by the costs of housing and feeding migrants across the city,” Mr. Adams said.
“We were saddled with picking up the costs of the asylum seekers. You talk about defunding. Our national government defunded New York City,” he said of the cuts.
On ABC 7 Sunday, he said he found it “baffling” that not more is being done now that multiple city mayors are calling for help.
“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,” Mr. Adams said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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