The migrant crisis at our Southern border
is having an impact all across our country from policy debates
on Capitol Hill to stretching the resources
of a number of cities, one of them right here in New York.
Over 168,000 asylum seekers have come through this city's intake
system since spring of last year with over 69,000
currently in its care.
And joining us now is the mayor of the city
of New York, Eric Adams.
Mayor, thank you for joining us.
We appreciate it.
Good to see you both.
So, what is your biggest concern right now,
and what's the biggest challenge for the city?
It's always big issues in a big city like New York.
But when you look at the migrant and asylum seeker crisis--
as the numbers were mentioned, almost 170,000--
it is-- Albany, 1.5 the size of Albany
was dropped in New York City, and none of them
could work for the most part.
We were successful in getting 25,000 to our asylum seekers
and through our work authorization TPS.
But there's so much more that needs
to be done on the national level,
and that's a real crisis, both financially as well as space.
Let's talk about space issues.
There's a 60 day limit in these shelters for these people
who are coming here.
There's been a lot of criticism of that limit
and that it puts families in danger.
What's your response to them?
ERIC ADAMS: Well, I think criticism
is probably equal to any type of athlete
you're in the bleachers.
Come get on the field.
I'm on the field, and I know that 50% of those who
have come to this city, over 50%, we
have been able to self-sustain.
We first did single adults with a 30 day limit.
80% of those who reached that 30 day
went on to be self-sustaining.
20%, we put back through the system.
Now we're doing children and families where
we're giving them a 60 day.
No child or family will sleep on the streets
of the city of New York, unlike other municipalities.
We have become a national model on how to handle this.
But this is a national problem.
The national government needs to resolve this, not New Yorkers.
We have been humane.
We've led from the front.
But you don't want a child to have
a permanent shelter residency.
That is unacceptable, and we're not going to tolerate that.
And I'm sure you've heard by now
you were mentioned in last night's debate
on the topic of immigration.
Let's take a look at this.
This is putting harm on our schools, on our hospitals.
Taxpayers are paying for it.
You see these mayors are now upset about it.
The only reason--
Eric Adams is now upset.
Why?
He shouldn't be a sanctuary city, then.
That's why we have to defund sanctuary cities.
Now Governor Abbott finally did to them what's been
happening to Texas for so long.
We've got to put an end to this.
All right, mayor.
What's your reaction?
Well, national leaders should have
national knowledge of policies.
This has nothing to do with sanctuary cities.
Migrants and asylum seekers are paroled into the countries.
They're here legally.
And so when you have a national leader talking about sanctuary
cities is the reason we're having this,
it's telling me she's not knowledgeable
on the real topic.
The problem is, when you parole someone into a country,
you should have a decompression strategy on a national level
to spread it throughout the country
and not target just certain cities.
That's why you're seeing this real coalition
of Chicago, Denver, Boston.
All of these cities are now starting
to realize that this is what Eric was saying,
that this is not sustainable.
When you talk about not sustainable,
it's also causing some real strain on the systems
here in New York.
There was a lot of backlash just this week about a high school
in Brooklyn.
There was a tent shelter.
Those families, because of the weather,
were moved into that high school.
How are we going to continue to handle this?
Because those parents were very angry.
Well, we need to be really, really clear about that
because there were people who called in bomb threats, people
who made some nasty remarks.
That's not New York.
Just because of the numerical fringe group--
9, 10 people call in.
We are 8.3 million New Yorkers.
We've always used our school buildings during emergencies.
During the fire in 2022 up in the Bronx,
we moved those residents into a school.
When you have flooding, major storms,
we move them into school buildings.
When you have buildings collapse,
we use school buildings.
We're not going to say in this city
that when we have an emergency that impacts migrants,
we're not going to use our school
buildings because no matter what people say,
if you look closely, these are still children,
and adults should not ever put anything that's
going to endanger children.
Not one child or family sleeps on the streets
of the city of New York because of what my team has done.
We did the right thing.
And those parents who are stated that we can't inconvenience
someone for one day because of other children, that's
not acceptable, and I'm not going
to put children in harm's way.
So, what's the overall fix, the solution?
And can a federal government do more?
Yes, they can.
The overall fix is cities--
El Paso, Brownsville, Chicago, New York--
cities should not be handling a national crisis
of this magnitude.
We're getting, in average-- and just think of this number.
There are weeks we get 4,000 migrants
that come into our city.
When you have anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 coming in a week
and you have to find housing, food, shelter,
clothing, educating the children, health care,
that's not sustainable.
It's a $12 billion hole in the budget of our economy.
It's going to impact low income New Yorkers,
and it's going to impact every service in this city.
And I said it last year.
We're going to start seeing the visualization of this crisis.
We've done a great job, but we can't continue to sustain this.
And I do want to ask you.
Have you spoken directly with the governor
of Texas, Governor Abbott?
We reached out and tried to coordinate
with just the meanspiritedness of this governor who
has his intentionality of just placing
people on buses, compelling them to leave the city.
That is why we're taking legal action.
When you look at what he's doing,
history is going to really reflect how much he has
devastated the lives of people.
Listen.
This is a country of immigrants.
The difference between what we did with Ukrainian citizens
and other immigrants who have made
their way here to this great country
is we allow them to work.
This is so anti-American that we're telling thousands
of people, you must come to a country,
and you can't provide for your children and families.
That is not how we are as a country.
And that is what is at the heart of this issue.
We've never been this way as a country.
We should not be this way right now to this group
of men and women who are here.
If we paroled them in, then we should
give them the opportunity that every other immigrant has had.
And that is the right to move into the greatness
of this country.
FEMALE HOST: Mayor Eric Adams, we appreciate you coming in.
Thank you. MALE HOST: It's good to see you.
Thank you.