New York City Mayor Eric Adams visited El Paso over the weekend, saying that he and fellow municipal leaders would be teaming up to pressure the federal government for assistance handling the migrant crisis, Politico reports. Adams touched down Saturday evening for what was billed as a 24-hour fact-finding mission, hosted by El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a fellow Democrat. More than 40,000 migrants who have arrived in border towns like El Paso have traveled to New York City in the last year, an influx Adams has warned is overwhelming his administration’s ability to provide services. In a press briefing Sunday, he pledged to form a coalition with mayors facing similar situations.
“I knew it was time for me, not to try to handle this problem from the city, but to come in to interact with the mayors across the country,” Adams said. “This has fallen on our cities. And I am now going to coordinate my mayors across the entire country to say: How do we respond to this directly?” Next week, Adams plans to be in Washington, D.C., to bring up the issue at the United States Conference of Mayors. Whether the Senate, Congress or President Biden, who visited El Paso last week, will respond to the nascent coalition is unclear. New York City spent $366 million on services for asylum seekers last year, and Adams expects that sum to rise to $2 billion through June. Thus far, New York City has received just $8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $2 million arranged by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “This is a national crisis. FEMA deals with national crises. FEMA must step up, and there should be one coordinator to coordinate everything that is happening dealing with migrants and asylum seekers in our country,” Adams said.