Adams Visits the Border to Step Up Pressure on Biden for Migrant Funds - The New York Times

EL PASO — More than 2,000 miles from New York City, Mayor Eric Adams stood extracurricular a religion successful Texas connected Sunday and told a radical of migrants that helium would combat for them to beryllium capable to enactment and to “experience the American dream.”

As the mayor’s words were translated into Spanish, the assemblage began to clap and cheer.

But the mayor’s affirmative connection contrasted with his hard ngo connected his travel to the confederate borderline — helium is trying to summation unit connected President Biden to supply national assistance to New York City, which is dealing with an influx of migrants. He is showing compassion for radical whose lives person been upended portion besides insisting that they halt coming to his city.

The migrant situation has go 1 of Mr. Adams’s top challenges arsenic mayor. More than 40,000 radical person arrived unexpectedly successful New York City implicit the past year, straining the city’s fund arsenic good arsenic its strategy for sheltering stateless people.

After weeks of calling for much assistance from the national government, Mr. Adams decided to sojourn the border. His travel came 1 week aft Mr. Biden visited El Paso aft announcing a caller crackdown connected borderline crossings.

The fig of migrants apprehended portion trying to illegally transverse the borderline has deed grounds highs. The Border Patrol encountered 1.7 cardinal migrants trying to transverse illegally successful the 12 months starring up to October 2021, the astir since 1960.

Mr. Adams, a Democrat entering his 2nd twelvemonth successful office, kept a engaged docket connected his 24-hour travel to El Paso and sought to support astir of it retired of the nationalist eye. Only 1 lawsuit was unfastened to reporters: a quality league connected Sunday during which Mr. Adams called for assistance from national officials for the places that are welcoming migrants.

“Our cities are being undermined — we don’t merit this,” helium said, earlier adding: “We expect much from our nationalist leaders to code this successful a existent way.”

Mr. Adams said helium would question to Washington this week to proceed his campaign, and helium called connected Mr. Biden to name a person astatine the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate a nationalist effect to the crisis.

On Friday, Mr. Adams said that services for migrants could outgo the metropolis arsenic overmuch arsenic $2 cardinal — importantly higher than erstwhile estimates. Asked connected Sunday however overmuch helium wanted the national authorities to cover, Mr. Adams said the “entire cost.”

The metropolis comptroller, Brad Lander, said connected Sunday that the mayor’s travel did small to present wealth for New York and “instead, it risks reinforcing a harmful communicative that caller immigrants themselves are a problem.”

“Far from ‘undermining’ our city, immigrants person been the driving unit for New York City’s occurrence for centuries,” Mr. Lander, a Democrat, said.

On Saturday, Mr. Adams met with Oscar Leeser, the politician of El Paso, who took him to sojourn an country wherever migrants often transverse the borderline and a tract wherever radical were sleeping extracurricular successful camping tents.

The adjacent day, Mr. Adams met again with Mr. Leeser, a Democrat, and visited Sacred Heart Church, a structure for migrants, according to Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Mr. Adams who traveled with him.

“The world of the concern is that these migrants are being promised things earlier they transverse the borderline that are conscionable not available,” Mr. Levy posted connected Twitter.

Mr. Adams besides visited a memorial astatine a Walmart wherever 23 radical were killed successful a wide shooting successful 2019 and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center.

Mr. Adams has struggled to respond to the flood of migrants arriving connected buses successful New York City, perpetually shifting his strategy and his rhetoric. The metropolis has provided shelter, food, covering and schooling to thousands of migrants and their children, and Mr. Adams has argued that migrants should beryllium capable to enactment legally successful the metropolis much quickly.

But the politician has besides struck a harsh code astatine times, calling connected Mr. Biden to dilatory the travel of migrants astatine the borderline and saying soon aft Christmas that determination was “no much country astatine the inn” successful New York for further migrants. As the metropolis faces increasing fund challenges, Mr. Adams has said that the migrant situation whitethorn necessitate cuts to basal metropolis services.

On Sunday, helium reiterated his presumption that the metropolis could not invited much migrants and said that astir 800 had arrived connected a caller day.

“New York cannot instrumentality more,” helium said. “We can’t.”

In the spring, Republican leaders successful Florida and Texas began sending a surge of radical who had crossed the confederate borderline seeking asylum to cities with Democratic elected leaders — New York, Washington and Chicago — saying they were giving a sensation of the borderline situation to left-leaning localities with alleged sanctuary metropolis policies.

Mr. Adams said successful an interrogation connected “PBS NewsHour” connected Friday that the Biden medication was placing a load connected cities similar New York.

Saying that 36,000 radical had appeared “on our doorsteps,” helium said that “we did what immoderate New Yorker would bash — we provided for them not lone housing, a spot for them to sleep, with food, wellness care; we educated a important fig of children, and we are besides providing the indispensable intelligence wellness enactment that is needed.”

“But we request help,” helium added.

Mr. Adams traveled to El Paso with a tiny radical of advisers that included Camille Joseph Varlack, his caller main of staff; Zachary Iscol, his commissioner for exigency management; and Manuel Castro, his commissioner of migrant affairs. Mr. Iscol helped oversee the instauration of a immense lodging halfway for migrants connected Randalls Island that has since closed; Mr. Castro has welcomed arriving migrants astatine the Port Authority Bus Terminal successful Manhattan.

At Sacred Heart Church successful El Paso connected Sunday, a assemblage of astir 40 migrants gathered extracurricular erstwhile they heard that the politician was visiting. One pistillate held a swaddled baby, and different pistillate fed a kid atom and beans arsenic they waited to spot him. One idiosyncratic asked aloud if helium was determination to manus retired papers to let migrants to question to New York.

Mr. Adams stopped to speech with the radical and asked 1 antheral however helium had learned astir New York City.

“Only successful movies and television,” the antheral said successful Spanish, and the politician laughed.