(NewsNation) — Former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang believes current Mayor Eric Adams’ international trip to Mexico is grandstanding instead of offering solutions for his own city.
Adams embarked on a trip to Latin America, where he is warning migrants that they may not be welcome in New York since the city is “at capacity.” Last month, 222,000 migrants were apprehended by the Border Patrol — the second-highest month this year.
“The mayor of New York City is going to go there and solve this problem just doesn’t seem logical at all,” said Yang.
“The mayor put himself in a tough spot because he needs the feds. But then, he publicly went out and kind of trashed the Biden administration,” Yang said regarding Adams’ criticism of the president.
Adams once praised New York’s 40-year-old “right to shelter policy,” which provides aid to asylum seekers. But earlier this week, his administration asked the courts to suspend the policy.
Yang — who ran against Adams — said on “CUOMO” that New York City is not equipped to solve the entire country’s immigration problems.
The city said it was shelling out nearly $5 billion a year to house over 120,000 migrants. That’s equal to the budgets of the sanitation, fire and parks departments combined.
“This should be a moment when people rise to the challenge and then try and address the issue at the border. Not just here in New York City but obviously the other places that are attracting migrants,” said Yang.
He criticized the blame game and questioned the effectiveness of the mayor’s international trip, emphasizing the need for solutions within city limits.
“The game is going to kill us, Chris, we got to put a stop to the game,” Yang said.