USA: the migration crisis will “destroy” New York, its Democratic mayor said

Controversial comments. The migrant crisis will “destroy New York,” said Eric Adams, the Democratic mayor of the American metropolis, which welcomes more than 10,000 new economic migrants and asylum seekers a month. The statement was heavily criticized by associations on Thursday.

“Never in my life have I encountered a problem to which I could not see an end. I don’t see an end to this,” the city councilman said Wednesday night during public debate. Over the course of a year and a half, more than 110 thousand migrants arrived in the American metropolis with a population of 8.5 million.

Some have been sent by Republican governors, who are chartering buses or planes to fly migrants to Democratic strongholds such as New York, Washington or Los Angeles. Immigration is a hot political issue in the United States, and conservatives are seizing every opportunity to blame Democratic President Joe Biden for turning the border with Mexico into a sieve.

New York is required by law to provide shelter, food and care to anyone seeking asylum. Eric Adams, a former African-American police officer, is urgently calling on the federal government to help address this migrant crisis. “New Yorkers’ compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not,” he said in August.

But his comments on Wednesday drew sharp criticism from migrant rights associations. The New York Immigration Coalition accused him on Thursday of “blaming the mismanagement of new arrivals (…) on vulnerable people seeking safety and opportunity.”

“This is the kind of dangerous speech we expect from a far-right politician,” the Homeless and Legal Aid Coalition responded in a joint statement. The adviser’s comments “are intended to irresponsibly create fear”, they said.