(NewsNation) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been vocal about the recent wave of migrants coming into the area and how it is financially affecting the city, but he made his strongest comments yet about the issue at a town hall Wednesday.
Adams called out both the White House and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in his remarks. He slammed Abbott as a “madman down in Texas” over the governor’s program bussing over 35,000 migrants to “sanctuary cities” to protest the current administration’s immigration policies.
New York is not alone. Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles also received asylum-seekers from the southern border.
But Adams’ ire wasn’t only directed toward Republicans like Abbott.
“We’re getting no support on this national crisis,” Adams said. “Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an end to. I don’t see an end to this. … This issue will destroy New York City.”
This lack of support is despite Adams repeatedly calling for more federal funding as migrant shelters are at capacity. Earlier this summer, some migrants were sleeping on the sidewalk outside midtown Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel because of a lack of space.
Adams says the city has received over 110,000 total asylum-seekers since April 2022. For the next three years, costs associated with migrants coming into the city will cost about $4 billion annually.
“I said it last year when we had 15,000, and I’m telling you now at 110,000,” he said. “The city we knew, we’re about to lose.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, seized on the comments by the mayor, saying there was a total breakdown between the Democrat mayor and the Biden administration.