New York, NY—Today, Mayor Eric Adams said at the African American Mayors Association (AAMA) Conference in Washington, D.C., “the city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis, and none of my folks came to Washington, D.C. to fight for the resources, that’s going to undermine every agency in our city.”
Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition:
“Mayor Adams is still playing a dangerous game of duck and weave, using inflammatory rhetoric to blame asylum seekers for his inability to manage New York’s budget, its agencies and the well-being of every New Yorker—the core elements of his job. Meanwhile, he is throwing NY’s Congressional membership and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams under the bus – all of whom were just in D.C. this week to lobby on behalf of the city – by stating he is a lone wolf fighting to save his city. It would be funny if his words weren’t fanning the flames of animosity towards immigrant New Yorkers. It is long past time that Mayor Adams stopped treating people seeking safety as a crisis, and started investing in an infrastructure of permanent housing, legal representation, and social service supports that will allow asylum seekers, and all New Yorkers, to build their lives here. New Yorkers need solutions not demonization.”