EL PASO, Texas (AP) — During a visit to the Texas border city of El Paso, New York Mayor Eric Adams offered up a blistering criticism of the federal government’s response to the influx of immigrants into U.S. cities, saying, “We need clear coordination.”
He said Sunday that cities where immigrants are flowing to need help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Our cities are being undermined. And we don’t deserve this. Migrants don’t deserve this. And the people who live in the cities don’t deserve this,” Adams said as he wrapped up a weekend visit to El Paso. “We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way.”
Adams said New York City has been overwhelmed. Since last spring, New York City has welcomed about 40,000 asylum seekers, and last week they saw a record of close to 840 asylum seekers arriving in one day, according to Adams.
“New York cannot take more. We can’t,” Adams said, adding that other cities also can’t take more.
“No city deserves what is happening,” he said.
Adams, a Democrat, also criticized the practice of some governors of transporting immigrants straight from the border to cities including New York City. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, over the last year has sent buses of immigrants to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he said is inaction by the Biden administration over high numbers of migrants crossing on the southern border.
Adams noted that the governor of Colorado, a Democrat, had also bused migrants to New York City. He said the actions of those two governors showed “bipartisan disrespect for cities and it was wrong.”
Adams said the federal government should be picking up the cost that the cities are incurring 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.