Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday applauded President Biden’s latest crackdown on migrants from several Caribbean, South and Central American countries attempting to cross the southern border into the United States, amid tens of thousands of those migrants continuing to arrive in New York City for the better part of a year.
But, Adams said, there’s still far more that the White House can do to help the city handle the influx of migrants.
Biden’s sweeping policy change would effectively prevent any migrant coming from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua or Venezuela from entering the U.S. and seeking asylum here by crossing the southern border, according to a published report. Those who violate the rule, will be promptly expelled to Mexico, which has agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month.
The new rules, however, will also allow 30,000 migrants from those countries to apply for asylum in the U.S. — on a monthly basis — via a phone app, from their home countries.
In a lengthy statement released shortly after Biden unveiled the border restrictions, Hizzoner lauded the president for taking action that he said will help relieve the dramatic strain that sheltering, feeding, clothing and otherwise providing for a large portion of the over 36,000 asylum seekers has placed on the city.
“For months, New Yorkers have seen an influx of asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and every day since, we have far surpassed our moral and legal mandates to serve the more than 36,400 asylum seekers who have arrived here,” the mayor said.
“President Biden’s announcement today to expand the humanitarian program to allow more asylum seekers to travel to the United States safely, legally, and in a more controlled manner, is an important, positive step in ensuring our federal partners can better address this humanitarian crisis,” he continued. “We appreciate this administration’s partnership and response to our request for action, and we are hopeful this policy will help better control the flow of asylum seekers arriving at the southern border.”
Adams has been calling on Biden to find a replacement for the public health rule, known as Title 42, that allows the feds to expel migrants who illegally crossed the border back to Mexico, since a federal judge deemed it unconstitutional late last year. The president had utilized Title 42 to expel Venezuelan migrants who illegally crossed the southern border, which Adams has said greatly reduced the number of asylum seekers coming to the Big Apple.
Late last December, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it would hear arguments on Title 42 from a group of 19 Republican-led states seeking to keep it in place in February, and that it would allow the rule to stand until then.
In his statement, the mayor tempered his praise for Biden by indicating there’s still much work to be done in order to get the crisis under control long term. That includes providing the city financial assistance to help it bear the hefty price tag that comes with accommodating so many new people, which the mayor’s office has estimated could reach $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
“At the same time, we still need a long-term and proactive strategy to manage the crisis we are seeing,” he said. “This must include legislation that will allow asylum seekers to legally work while waiting on their asylum applications, a true decompression strategy and resettlement program that ensures asylum seekers are being spread out across the nation and not just sent to a handful of cities, and emergency financial relief for our city.”
Adams, growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of federal aid he’s been requesting in earnest since October, even hinted at the idea Wednesday that he would more aggressively take Democrats in Washington to task if the city doesn’t start receiving more assistance — something he said he’d discussed with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot the day before.
“I think the Chicago mayor is right,” Adams said at the time. “When I spoke to her yesterday, she says ‘Eric, you know, we have been a little too patient. We can’t do anything to embarrass our families, but it’s about time we start to do that.’”
