Amid a four-day junket to Latin America this week, Mayor Eric Adams said Friday there is no one “magic pill” that will solve New York City’s migrant crisis and that visiting a dangerous stretch of jungle Saturday that many migrants pass through will provide him with a greater insight into the problem.
Hizzoner explained what he hopes to accomplish by visiting the dangerous Darien Gap when speaking to reporters Friday following a virtual briefing from Quito, Ecuador. The Darien Gap is a region covered by rainforests and mountains between Colombia and Panama, which many migrants must pass through in order to get to the U.S.
Adams has said he embarked on the trip to learn more about the conditions leading migrants to journey to the city and to try to convince newcomers to settle elsewhere. Adams visited Mexico on Thursday and Ecuador on Friday, with plans to travel to the Darien Gap and Colombia this weekend.
The mayor said that visiting the region is one of many actions he is taking to dissuade migrants from venturing to the Big Apple, as the city has already seen more than 122,700 arrive here in the past 18 months.
“There isn’t one item that’s going to slow down the pace,” Adams told reporters. “Mayor Adams showing up at the Darien Gap is not going to change the minds of everyone coming through. Mayor Adams speaking on local press isn’t going to change every mind. There isn’t one magic pill that’s going to solve this crisis and we need to be clear on that. And if we sit back and wait for the one magic pill, then we are going to watch this issue erode.”
Before departing for the trip earlier this week, Adams said he wanted to give migrants the “true picture” of what life will be like for them in New York City. He said he must counter an online “propaganda machine” that is giving migrants a false sense of what the city has to offer.
“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in a five star hotel, it doesn’t mean that … you automatically are going to be allowed to work,” he said earlier this week. “We’re going to tell them what the real conditions are. The large number of thousands of people living in congregate settings.”
The mayor has been spreading that message, he said, by having local media outlets join him at most of the stops on his trip so far.
Adams said he is specifically going to the Darien Gap to better understand the “fullness” of the migration problem that is currently overwhelming the city.
“By going to the Darien Gap it’s going to further educate me on the fullness of this problem by going to the source of the problem and having a clear understanding of it,” he said.
Adams said he hopes to learn how to communicate with the migrants before they enter the Darien Gap and their motives for making the journey. “When do we give information there before they start that journey? What’s motivating people?”
The mayor declined to provide details as to what section of the Darien Gap he would be traveling to or the specific time he would be there, citing safety issues. He described the region as “extremely dangerous.”
Accompanying Adams on his journey into the region is an NYPD security detail, along with “officials on the ground.”
“We want to respect the law enforcement entity and those who are in charge of providing our safety,” he said. “There’s some extreme issues there that we want to respect what our officials are telling us.”
On Friday, the mayor also visited two migrant shelters in Quito during the morning. In the afternoon he had back-to-back meetings planned with Ecuadorian public officials, an engagement with local press and a tour of the city’s historic center, according to his public schedule.
Adams is expected to be back in New York City early Sunday morning.
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