Wednesday evening, for the first three and a half minutes of his welcoming words at his “Community Conversation with Eric” at a K-8 school on the Upper West Side, Mayor Adams touted his administration’s record over the last 20 months. Then he spent the next three minutes talking about the burden of taking in more than 110,000 migrants, who first started coming when “a madman down in Texas decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City.”
As of last Sunday, according to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, there were 59,700 asylum seekers being sheltered and fed by New York City, with tens of thousands of others who have already passed through. Meanwhile 10,000 more are arriving each month.
Adams said that, “I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.” What he’s talking about is the huge financial cost — upwards of $12 billion — to pay for caring for the migrants that poses a dire threat to his city government’s budget. “Every service in this city is going to be impacted,” from cops to schools to water to roads.
And as the mayor rightly complained, “We’re getting no support on this national crisis and we’re receiving no support.” There has been essentially zero help from the national government and President Biden. Why hasn’t the president spoken to the mayor in more than a year? We doubt that Adams is being the shy one there.
When terrorists attacked the city on 9/11, when Rudy Giuliani was mayor, President George W. Bush and Congress sent $20 billion for recovery and aid. The mayor and the president talked.
When Superstorm Sandy landed on Oct. 29, 2012, when Mike Bloomberg was mayor, President Obama and Congress sent $15 billion for recovery and aid. The mayor and the president talked.
When COVID hit New York City first and hardest starting in March 2020, when Bill de Blasio was mayor, President Trump and Congress sent what would total $27 billion for recovery and aid. The mayor and the president talked (yes, Trump and de Blasio).
Now we have another major crisis and this time the current president, so fearful of the immigration issue before his reelection next year, won’t even talk to the mayor? Aside from money — the most desperately needed commodity and which the federal government alone has the ability to print — Biden is vacillating about even offering some empty acreage out at Floyd Bennett Field for more tent cities
Biden has to know what is happening in this city. It’s been in all the papers and New York is home to the Daily News and our competitors at the Times and the Post and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the world headquarters of the Associated Press. The headquarters of all five TV networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox are also here.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy knows. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries know, they both live in Brooklyn. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knows. But do they or Biden do a thing? No. They do nothing.
They are all letting Adams and the taxpayers of New York City handle it themselves. Mr. President and the gentlemen who lead the Congress, please do your duty and help the country’s largest city.
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