New York City Mayor Eric Adams has criticized President Joe Biden and his administration for allegedly neglecting the city’s influx of asylum seekers, causing “one of the largest humanitarian crises” the city has ever faced. The mayor accused the White House of turning its back on the city and leaving it to handle the arrival of over 55,000 asylum seekers claiming to be seeking refuge from persecution and violence, mostly coming from Latin America, on its own. The influx of migrants has led to a projected budget shortfall of $4.2 billion, according to Adams, who has ordered city agencies to cut $4 billion from their budgets over the next four years to pay for the massive humanitarian effort.

“The national government has turned its back on New York City,” Adams said. “Every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.” The mayor criticized the federal government’s inaction, claiming that most migrants had come to New York to work and support themselves but are prohibited from doing so legally for the first six months of their stay. He added that the situation would only become more costly and dire next month when the Title 42 health policy is set to expire. The emergency measure allowed officials to quickly expel millions of asylum seekers on public health grounds.

“Over 50,000 people come to the city of New York seeking assistance and we are told, ‘You will not allow them to work, you have to … give them food, clothing if they need, give them the basic services that they need, you’re supposed to make sure they have three meals a day, make sure that all the children are educated — and while you’re doing that, New York City, we’re not going to give you anything in return,’” Adams complained.

Adams called on the Biden administration and the United States Department of Homeland Security to “use all tools that are available to resolve this issue” and warned that the number of asylum seekers in the city could jump from 52,000 to 100,000 if the situation is not brought under control. He also claimed that the city was a victim of its own success, having paid for sheltering migrants without raising taxes or laying off municipal workers.

In response to Adams’ criticisms, the White House attempted to deflect blame onto fiscally conservative House Republicans, even though Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress until January. Gotham is set to receive about $1 billion from Albany to mitigate migrant costs in addition to a still-to-be-determined share of an $800 million relief package approved by federal lawmakers. However, Adams stressed that more help from the federal government is needed to address the crisis.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)