Biden administration officials shift blame for NYC migrant crisis on to Mayor Eric Adams: ‘It is not an operationally sound effort’
- DHS employees told NBC News local officials have ‘no exit strategy’ for the 10,000 migrants New York City takes in to temporary housing each month
- Eric Adams blames a lack of federal support, a ‘broken’ national immigration system and Republican governors bussing their migrants to New York City
- This comes as tensions heat up between local and national Democrat officials and Adams says out-of-control immigration threatens to ‘destroy’ the Big Apple
Biden administration officials have blamed Mayor Eric Adams for New York’s out-of-control migrant crisis as tensions heat up between the Democrat factions.
Department of Homeland Security employees have blasted the mayor’s office for having ‘no exit strategy’ for the 10,000 refugees the city takes in each month.
Their comments are the latest example of the president’s inner circle passing the humanitarian issue like a hot potato to local officials who in turn shunt responsibility back to the White House.
One Department of Homeland Security employee told NBC News insiders are worried this cycle could eclipse the accomplishments made by the government on other fronts.
Another official laid the blame squarely at the Mayor’s door, telling NBC Adams has ‘no exit strategy’ for moving thousands of refugees out of overflowing temporary housing units in the city.
‘It’s not an operationally sound effort,’ they said.
The federal official said they worked with a DHS team sent to study the way New York is handling asylum seekers in August, producing an assessment which has not been made publicly available.
Adams recently admitted the crisis is threatening to ‘destroy’ the Big Apple – but he blasted a lack of federal support, a ‘broken’ nationwide immigration system and Republicans bussing refugees from their own states into the city.
‘Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,’ the former NYPD top cop said.
‘This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.’
Taking aim at Biden, he added: ‘We’re getting no support on this national crisis.’
On August 9, Adams made an emotional plea for funds, and called on Biden to declare a state of emergency.
New York is bound by a decades-old consent decree to provide shelter for those who make it to the metro, and Adams has desperately turned to a variety of landmarks, makeshift shelters and temporary housing as short-term solutions.
Almost every decision he makes over the issue has sparked a backlash from New Yorkers, who slated the transformation of the historic Redbury and Roosevelt hotels into exclusive migrant shelters last month.
The mayor’s desperation to provide housing even saw him propose moving refugees into Manhattan’s notorious MCC prison – the same run-down facility where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in 2019.
Last month, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services Anne Williams-Isom said the number of migrants in New York’s homeless shelters is over 57,000 – just over half the total.
In March, city officials launched a 24-hour center to handle the numbers, and created a new agency to help coordinate efforts.
The migration situation in the Big Apple has been described as a humanitarian crisis by officials, and it costs more than $9 million per day to house, feed and support them.
