NYC Mayor Adams says New Yorkers ‘angry’ over migrant crisis as he heads to DC

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says that New Yorkers “need help” with the sanctuary city’s migrant crisis and are “angry” at the federal government as he traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with congressional leaders and appeal for more federal aid.

“We need help,” Adams said on the plane to D.C., adding that “New Yorkers are angry.”

“The asylum seeker crisis is a national problem and it needs a national solution,” he said.

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The city has seen more than 140,000 migrants come in since last year, which has left the city’s social services overwhelmed and forced deep budget cuts to policing, sanitation and education.

Adams has said the cuts are due to the city having spent $1.45 billion in fiscal 2023 on the migrant crisis and nearly $11 billion expected to be spent in 2024 and 2025.

Adams has claimed it is a problem that the federal government should be dealing with. On Thursday, outside of Capitol Hill, Adams said that the city needs “a real decompression strategy” involving more migrants being given the right to work. He also said that he and other mayors who have called for more aid from the federal government are expanding their coalition.

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But the Biden administration has pointed to more than $770 million it has given out to support communities taking in migrants in the last year and recommendations its teams of experts have made.

It has also deployed personnel to help with authorizing work permits and to educate migrants on the immigration system, a DHS official said recently.

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Separately, the White House has requested an additional $14 billion in emergency funding for border operations, which includes an additional $1.4 billion in grants to help local governments and nonprofits. But that funding has stalled in Congress amid a fight over border security measures asked for by Republicans.

But Adams and other mayors have called for $5 billion in funding for cities, rather than than $1.4 billion requested. 

“We are seeing that this is having a major impact on our cities,” he said on Thursday.

Last week the city announced it was expanding assistance to migrants to help them complete asylum and work authorization applications. So far, the city has helped process 7,200 asylum applications, more than 2,900 work authorizations and 2,900 TPS applications.