New York City‘s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams returned to Manhattan on Friday with bad news about the city’s migrant crisis after he pleaded for help in Washington, D.C., this week.
Adams visited Washington, D.C., on Thursday to make up for a canceled trip to the federal city last month after an FBI investigation into his campaign required his prompt return. During the latest trip, Adams met with Democratic leaders in Congress, people from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and senior White House adviser Tom Perez.
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“I did not leave with optimism,” Adams told reporters on Friday. “I left with the cold reality that help is not on the way in the immediate future. It is going to be, at this moment, it’s going to be up to New Yorkers and this administration to continue to navigate this challenge that we’re facing.”
Adams has projected that the migrant crisis will cost the city $12 billion by 2025 if the flow of new migrants remains the same. New York City has seen more than 150,000 migrants enter its homeless housing system since the spring of 2022, with 66,000 still in its care.
Federal assistance in the crisis has been minimal, with New York City only receiving $150 million so far. However, the White House has requested Congress approve another $1.4 billion in aid for sanctuary cities.
Adams’s visit, which marks his 10th trip to Washington this year, comes a month after he quickly and unexpectedly departed Washington on Nov. 2 to handle the FBI inquiry. Adams was originally expected to join other mayors to discuss the larger migrant crisis plaguing “sanctuary cities,” and the mayors were hoping to secure $5 billion in federal assistance.
“We did not walk out from D.C. with any level of optimism that anything is going to drastically change,” Adams said. “It is clear that for the time being, this crisis is going to be carried by the cities. We are at an untenable situation right now.”
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Adams also met with FEMA Director Deanne Criswell on Thursday in an attempt to open up different avenues through which the federal agency could help. But unnamed sources told the New York Post that the meeting was also fruitless.
The mayor previously attacked the agency in May after the federal emergency program only allocated $30 million to New York City to help the city with the influx of immigrants. Adams claimed the amount was insufficient given how big the crisis was in New York compared to other cities.
