New York City Mayor Eric Adams had a message for President Biden Tuesday when faced with repeated questions about whether they would meet while the president was in town to address the United Nations General Assembly, as relations between the two Democrats have soured during Big Apple’s worsening migrant crisis.
“I’m very public. Everybody knows where I am,” Adams said during an unrelated press conference Tuesday, which was slated to address the city transportation department’s next phase in its “war on rats.” The mayor stressed that all his meetings would be on his public schedule. “You guys know where I am all the time. We release if we’re going to be with the president or not.”
“President Biden’s coming to the city,” Adams added, “I am hoping that he understands this beautiful city that’s the economic engine of the entire country is being saddled with $2 billion that we spent already, $5 billion we’re going to spend in this fiscal crisis, $12 billion in the next two budgetary cycles. New York doesn’t deserve this. The asylum seekers don’t deserve this.”
When pressed on whether Adams would meet with Biden specifically, the mayor continued, “So while he’s here, I think that they should really reflect on, New York City has done its part.”
Adams, who once dubbed himself the “Biden of Brooklyn,” said he has not spoken to the president since earlier this year on the migrant crisis or any other issue. After the mayor criticized Biden more harshly in May, Adams was removed from Biden’s re-election team, yet Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul remains a member of the presidential campaign’s team of surrogates.
“I spoke to the president earlier this year and shared our concerns of both the governor also communicated with him, and that was the last time we spoke with the president. I have communicated with the White House staffers to talk about the urgency of the moment,” Adams said Tuesday. “You know, we need an emergency declaration, we need to be properly funded, we need a decompression strategy not only in the city but throughout the state. This is just wrong.”
Hochul, meanwhile, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday that she had met with the president.
“Had a very productive conversation with President Biden tonight regarding some of our specific requests for help with the migrant crisis. Also commended him on his leadership at the UN today,” she wrote.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., replied to the governor’s post, writing, “If you didn’t tell him to undo his executive orders that created this mess and to secure the border, then it wasn’t productive. Why do you and the Democrats want this crisis to continue?”
More than 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York City with over 60,000 still in the city’s care.
Both Adams and Hochul have urged the Biden administration to grant federal work authorization for migrants, and the governor reportedly is mulling migrant work visas at the state level. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine has estimated asylum seekers are costing the city $10 million a day.
Biden, who failed to address the border crisis during his address at the U.N. General Assembly and hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Tuesday, is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wednesday before departing New York later in the evening. With the U.N. General Assembly in town, Adams has met with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio and Seoul, South Korea Mayor Oh Se-hoon this week.
Neither Biden nor Adams’ public schedules have listed meetings with each other since the president’s arrival in New York on Monday.
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