Mayor Eric Adams: Migration Crisis “Will Destroy New York City.” New York City’s Congressional Delegation: ‘Let’s Make It Worse”

New York City is reeling from the impact of more than 125,000 new illegal aliens who have taken up residence in the Big Apple over the past year, with thousands more arriving by the week. The city’s beleaguered mayor, Eric Adams, could not have expressed the magnitude of the crisis in more dire terms. “Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000, and I’m telling you now at 110,000. The city we knew, we’re about to lose.” The cash-strapped city expects it will spend $12 billion to provide for the needs of these new illegal aliens over the next three years. 

The mayor’s pleas were met with a sharp stab in the back, led by his own congressional delegation in Washington. Within days of Mayor Adams’ predicting the demise of New York City, 103 House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden urging him to further abuse executive authority that would incentivize even more illegal immigration. Among the 103 Democratic House members signing the letter to the president, were 10 members who represent New York City – led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

The House Democrats urged the administration to waive the statutorily-mandated 180-day wait for asylum-seekers to gain work authorization and grant it immediately. Since nearly all of the asylum-seekers are, in fact, economic migrants, immediate work authorization would likely increase the number of bogus asylum claims. Additionally, they asked the president to further abuse “humanitarian parole” to accommodate more illegal aliens, and increase the number of nationality groups eligible for Temporary Protected Status. And for illegal aliens already here, these House members asked the administration to streamline cancellation of removal procedures and encourage more illegal aliens to apply for relief. 

Many of those same New York House members showed in Manhattan a few days later to try to sell their plan to the public and were greeted with what could be politely described as a Bronx Cheer. As each member came before the television cameras and microphones in front of the Roosevelt Hotel that has been turned into a migrant shelter, they were drowned out by angry constituents fuming about the toll the migration crisis was taking on their city. In addition to the more than 200 shelters that have sprung up across the city, many residents had just sent their kids back to public schools that were being forced to absorb 21,000 new non-English-speaking migrant children, with no plans for how they were going to educate any children under those circumstances. 

Notwithstanding his dire assessment of the situation in New York, Mayor Adams has yet to call for an end to New York City’s status as a sanctuary for illegal aliens. Nor has he been willing to directly confront the Biden administration over policies that are directly responsible for his city’s plight. Instead, he attacked the “madman down in Texas,” referring to Gov. Greg Abbott, even though about 13,000 of the 110,000 who have arrived in New York arrived courtesy of the Texas governor. 

While New York, like countless communities all across the country, deserve relief from the consequences of the Biden Border Crisis, it is hard to see how they will get it when their own federal and local representatives are intent on making the problem worse.