NYC Mayor Eric Adams blames Biden for city’s budget woes: ‘Yell at DC’

Misty Severi November 21, 01:02 PM November 21, 01:02 PM Video Embed

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is blaming the federal government for billions that were slashed from the city’s budget last week to deal with its immigrant crisis.

Adams claimed that the lack of federal funding made the crisis unfair to both immigrants and the city because it forced each city agency to reduce its budget by 5% in November. Another 5% reduction is expected in January if the Biden administration does not provide any funding.

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“D.C. has abandoned us, and they need to be paying their cost to this national problem,” Adams said during a town hall in Brooklyn. “This is unfair what we’re doing to migrant asylum-seekers, and it’s unfair what we’re doing to everyday taxpayers.”

New York City has witnessed more than 125,000 asylum-seekers enter its care since the spring of last year, which has put a major drain on city resources. In order to respond to the influx, the city diverted $2.1 billion from the city’s education budget, $1.4 billion from the Department of Social Services, and $800 million from Homeless Services. It also forced the city to shrink its police force by 4,000 officers and cancel the next five police academy classes.

Adams has asked President Joe Biden to help ease the financial burden, which is projected to cost the city $12 billion by 2025 if the crisis remains the same, but he has seen little response. Biden and Adams have reportedly not spoken directly in roughly a year.

“I tell people all the time when they stop me on the subway system, ‘Don’t yell at me. Yell at D.C.,’” Adams said. “We deserve better as a city.”

The mayor was also scheduled to sit down with White House officials earlier this month alongside other Democratic mayors whose cities have been greatly affected by the surge of illegal immigration along the county’s southern border. But Adams returned home before the meetings took place to deal with an FBI inquiry into his campaign. The mayors were hoping to secure $5 billion in federal assistance.

A White House spokesperson told the Washington Examiner at the time that the administration is committed to helping the mayors get funding from Congress, but the White House has only requested $1.4 billion so far.

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“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting local jurisdictions hosting recently arrived migrants and we will continue working to deliver support in every way we can,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We have asked Congress for $1.4 billion in additional grant funding to support local communities and have ask for additional personnel to build upon the improvements DHS has made to processing work permits.”

The city has received $1.5 billion from the state of New York so far, and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has also urged the Biden administration to send more federal aid for the immigration crisis.

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