New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) called on the Biden administration to take action as the city “cannot take more” migrants during a visit to the southern border in El Paso, Texas.
Adams, who is entering his second year as mayor, said it’s time for the federal government “to do its job,” with cities like New York being forced to care for thousands of migrants being bused from the southern border, according to Reuters.
“New York cannot take more,” Adams said, according to The New York Times. “We can’t.”
Adams, who spent a day in El Paso visiting with Mayor Oscar Leeser (D) and other officials, has said the ongoing migrant crisis may result in cuts to basic city services, as the city is facing other challenges like homelessness.
Adams noted that services for migrants could cost the city up to $2 billion, which is higher than previous estimates.
“Our cities are being undermined — we don’t deserve this,” Adams said, per the Times. “We expect more from our national leaders to address this in a real way.”
Adams made similar remarks on Saturday, requesting aid from the New York state government in an effort to help shelter the asylum-seekers in the city. Adams asked the state government to initially provide housing for at least 500 migrants.
“We are at our breaking point,” Adams said in a statement. “Based off our projections, we anticipate being unable to continue sheltering arriving asylum seekers on our own and have submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the State of New York beginning this weekend.”
The Biden administration has struggled to alleviate the influx of migrants across the southern border, with the new GOP House majority promising to ramp up scrutiny on the administration’s handling of immigration.
President Biden paid a visit to the southern border a week ago, after months of Republican criticism that he had not seen the crisis for himself.
GOP governors in border states have bused thousands of migrants to Democratic-run cities — including New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago — straining social services. The governors say they are merely sharing the burden of a broken immigration system.
Adams has pleaded with Texas officials to halt the practice, publicly feuded with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), and in October declared a state of emergency because of the influx of migrants.
“This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America and is being accelerated by American political dynamics,” he said at the time.