Adams slams ‘irresponsibility’ of GOP, White House on migrant crisis

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose city has dealt with an influx of migrants over the past few months, slammed the White House and congressional Republicans for their “irresponsibility” on addressing immigration.

“It is not about the asylum-seekers and migrants. All of us came from somewhere to pursue the American dream,” Adams said at a press conference about public transit Tuesday. “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.”

Tens of thousands of migrants have been bused to New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., from GOP-led states, including Texas and Arizona, in recent months.

New York City leaders, including Adams, have said the city has stretched its resources and services to the limit for the arriving migrants, which number about 57,000 in total. Adams’s budget director said recently that it has cost the city over $800 million.

Adams argued the cities should not “be burdened (with) the weight of this problem.”

“It’s the irresponsibility of those that are allowing them to come to a country and not build the infrastructure to allow them to pursue their dream,” he said. 

Tuesday offered some of Adams’s most public criticism of the Biden administration yet, as he has been a staunch advocate of the president and the White House. But as the migrant crisis in the city has become more severe, Adams has started to speak in harsher terms about immigration policy and Biden, saying last month that his city is ​​“being destroyed” by the influx of migrants and saying earlier this month that the White House has “failed” the city.

Adams pushed back on the idea that his rhetoric could inflame anti-immigrant sentiment.

“I’m not spewing rhetoric, and I take offense to that,” Adams said.