In the 25 months since Eric Adams was sworn in as mayor of New York, the Democratic leader has been unceasingly vocal about the impact of immigrants arriving from the southern border.
More than 175,000 immigrants who crossed the border illegally and sought assistance from the NYC government have presented Adams with his greatest challenge in leadership and earned him lower approval ratings than even President Joe Biden — 28% to 40%, respectively.
Adams has blamed the city’s doomed budget and praised immigrants as essential workers, only later to complain about immigrants choosing to live in New York. He has landed on left-leaning groups’ naughty lists and came out against the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, describing the city as a victim of poor federal management.
With few friends by his side, Adams has continued into the second half of his term, unable to quell the influx of immigrants from the border — all while his messaging continues to change.
Below is a timeline of the city’s actions and the mayor’s comments:
2021
Prior to being elected mayor in November 2021 and taking office in January 2022, Adams touted NYC’s sanctuary city status for how illegal immigrants in the city were “keeping our city running” during the pandemic.
“The days I spent with our essential employees, a substantial number of them were undocumented,” Adams said. “They were delivering out Uber Eats, they were stocking our stores, they were out in the streets keeping our city running.”
2022
The border crisis worsened when President Joe Biden took office, but the impacts on major cities were not felt immediately.
Immigrants released from custody at the border may travel by plane, bus, or other means anywhere in the country. The Biden administration has not disclosed how many illegal immigrants have been released, though more than 8 million have been encountered at the border since 2021.
In July 2022, Adams asked for federal help as thousands of immigrants began arriving after being released at the border.
Adams blamed Republican governors for sending immigrants to his city, including Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who had begun busing immigrants to Washington, D.C., earlier that year.
When buses from Texas showed up in NYC in August, Adams was on site to welcome them. He said the city had a “moral and legal obligation to house anyone who is experiencing homelessness.” That would soon change.
2023
In early 2023, Adams copied Abbott’s playbook and offered free bus tickets for immigrants in NYC to take a one-way ride to Canada.
A government official in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populated province, said in February that Adams should immediately stop sending immigrants to Canada.
Republicans balked at Adams for how they said he was hypocritically trying to get immigrants out of his backyard after Adams had criticized Abbott and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
“Less than three weeks ago, Mayor Adams said busing migrants is ‘morally bankrupt,’” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. “Where is all the outrage and condemnation from the White House and Democrats for one of their own sending migrants out of town, out of state, and even out of the country?”
Unable to persuade many immigrants to leave the city, Adams tried to dissuade them from going to New York in the first place.
The city printed yellow fliers to be handed out to immigrants to inform them that there was “no guarantee” they would receive shelter or services if they went to New York.
“Housing in NYC is very expensive,” the fliers read. “Please consider another city as you make your decision about where to settle in the U.S.”
Immigrants were unfazed and continued arriving in the Big Apple. The city took over the once-iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, turned it into a shelter for immigrants, and opened 200 emergency shelters. By July, many immigrants were still unhoused, sleeping on the streets.
As of Aug. 13, more than 101,200 immigrants from the border had sought city help. Nearly 59,000 immigrants remained in the city’s care.
Under the city’s “Right to Shelter” law, it must provide housing for anyone who requests it, making it a rare city that guarantees such a benefit.
Adams slammed the Biden administration for not ending the crisis or funding NYC’s response. The city has received roughly $140 million in federal funding despite asking for $350 million.
“If we don’t get the support we need, New Yorkers could be left with a $12 billion bill,” Adams said during a press conference.
Department of Homeland Security officials told the city its actions were not operationally sound and criticized its response to the influx.
An exasperated Adams told town hall attendees in September that the situation was hopeless.
“Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to,” Adams said. “I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City.”
City officials announced that adults in shelters would only be allowed to stay 30 days instead of 60 days.
Legal rights organizations in New York were appalled by the change.
“This dangerous rhetoric is something you’d expect from fringe politicians on the far-right of the political spectrum, not from the mayor of a city that has always welcomed and celebrated its diverse and critically important immigrant community,” the Legal Aid Society of New York and Coalition for the Homeless said in a joint statement.
Adams continued to blame Abbott for the city’s immigration problem.
“It started with a madman down in Texas, decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City,” Adams said in September. “One hundred ten thousand migrants. We have to feed, clothe, house, educate the children, wash their laundry sheets, give them everything they need, healthcare.”
In October, Adams visited Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia to spread his message that his city had “reached capacity.”
That month, the city reversed course and filed court documents to get out of its “right to shelter” obligation.
2024
As of last Friday, Abbott said the state has funded buses for 38,200 immigrants to New York. That figure makes up about one-fifth of the 175,000 immigrants who have come through the city over the past year and a half and sought assistance.
The New York Immigration Coalition has accused Adams of turning immigrants into the scapegoat for the city’s budget problems.
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Murad Awawdeh, the NYIC executive director, said new city rules to push immigrants out of shelters were “cruel and unnecessary, especially when we can be moving people out of shelters using housing vouchers to stabilize families in need while saving the city $3 billion. Now, that would be the prudent thing to do if the mayor really cared about being financially responsible.”
Adams’s office did not provide a comment.
