"No city deserves this. El Paso does not deserve this — Chicago, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, New York. No city deserves what is happening."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams hammered the Biden administration on immigration Tuesday.
"Our cities are being undermined. And we don't deserve this. Migrants don't deserve this. And the people who live in these cities don't deserve this. We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way," Adams said.
During his visit to El Paso, Texas, Adams called the migrant wave a national crisis — describing migrants sleeping on the streets, with conditions there very similar to what’s happening in New York City.
"This is a beautiful city. And what has happened over the last few months undermined this city," Adams said.
Since last April, a massive influx of migrants hit the Big Apple. It's a stream that could cost the city as much as $2 billion, according to Mayor Adams. Millions of dollars were spent on short-lived migrant tents and care for the thousands of asylum-seekers, overwhelming the city’s shelters, flooding city hotels — forcing Adams to declare a state emergency last year.
Venezuelan migrant Yilfreddi Herrera said he saw dead people, including children, on his journey to the United States.
But others like Venezuelan migrant Orbelk Fernandez said the horrible experience was worthwhile, adding they’re now safe and hoping to find a job soon, as well as a better future.
"They're not getting enough food, is what we're hearing," said Ilze Thielmann, director at Team TLC NYC.
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Amid the crisis dozens of organizations in the Big Apple are stepping in to help.
"They're not getting what they need at the shelters. So they're coming back to the one place that they know that they've been able to get assistance and food and clothing and a sympathetic ear and a friendly face from the very beginning, from the moment they set foot in New York City," Thielmann said.
Texas and Florida's Republican governors have bused thousands of asylum-seeking migrants to cities run by Democratic politicians — inundating cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
"I will be in Washington, D.C. this week speaking to the American conference of mayors and AMA, African American Mayors Association, and we are going to raise this issue and how do we approach it to come up with real coordinated effort to put in place an agenda to address this issue," Adams said.
The mayor said the shipping of migrants has worsened the housing and homeless crisis in New York City.
