POLITICS OF MIGRANTS
Adams’ dire warning and tough talk stir fear of helping GOP
In the aftermath of last year’s gubernatorial and congressional elections, Mayor Adams came under fire for the outsize emphasis he placed on crime and public safety in his first year — with Democratic colleagues to the left of him arguing his rhetoric helped Republicans win several seats in the House of Representatives.
Now, political players and observers are saying a similar dynamic is playing out when it comes to the migrant crisis and what they view as Adams’ increasingly inflammatory remarks about it. His remarks reached their zenith last Wednesday when he told an Upper West Side audience the crisis “will destroy New York City” — a comment Republicans quickly seized on as proof that President Biden has failed to effectively address the issue.
Adams’ statement — and the positive reaction it drew from Republicans — now has Democrats concerned his words will threaten not only their political goal of winning back control of the House, but also Adams’ desire to lock down more help from the federal government.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan, Bronx), a political ally of Adams, said the mayor’s recent remarks run counter to what Democrats need to do on the issue, which is come together and move forward with solutions.
“I’m a friend of the mayor,” Espaillat said. “But you don’t get things done by allowing frustrations to get the best of you. We’ve got to come together and we’ve got to be able to pass some practical solutions to these problems.”
Many Democrats agree that Adams has reason to be frustrated. More than 110,000 migrants have arrived to the city since April 2022, and about 60,000 of them remain in the city’s care — a reality that Adams predicts will cost the city $12 billion in the coming years and siphon money from other important city services.
For his part, Adams has since doubled down on his comments that the crisis, not the migrants, will ultimately destroy the city, saying critics are unaware of the full scope of the issue.
“They have not been down at the hotels, they have not communicated with family members who have lost loved ones. I see on the ground what is happening, this is going to be a $12 billion price tag over three years,” Adams told the “PBS NewsHour” on Friday. “This is going to have a major impact on migrants, the delivery of services to them, the delivery of services to longtime New Yorkers who are already struggling.”
2022 focus on crime
Before the migrant crisis exploded, the mayor focused much of his angst on the state’s inability to change aspects of its bail laws, which he’d argued were contributing to an uptick in crime. For Republicans seeking to position themselves as tough on public safety, the issue was a no-brainer. The result: The GOP flipped four congressional seats in the state in their favor last year. But it also resulted in the state Legislature ultimately tweaking portions of the bail laws once again at the behest of Adams.
In next year’s election, Democrats have set their sights on winning some of those seats back, which in turn could make it easier for them to make changes to current immigration law — something Adams has said he’d like to see come to pass.
“There’s a part of me that would not be surprised in any sort of way that Adams is being intentionally inflammatory here and knows exactly what he’s saying to get those clips on Fox News or CNN or MSNBC. … I’m sympathetic in some ways, but we wish he’d be a little more chill,” said one Democratic congressional staffer of Adams’ recent comments who asked for anonymity so they can speak freely on the issue.
“There needs to be a sweet spot in being serious about the issue, being strong about it, taking it seriously, but making clear that a) Republicans are to blame and b) not just playing into their hands in what could be perceived as xenophobic rhetoric that’ll look great cut into a Republican ad.”
Another Democratic congressional
source who also spoke to the Daily News under the condition of anonymity so they can also speak about the issue openly, said Adams is ultimately hurting himself and the city, but that the mayor doesn’t “offer the opportunity for an intervention” — meaning that it would be difficult for a member of Congress to persuade him to revamp his language.
“It’s fraught,” the source said. “It would have to be somebody really close to the mayor who’s wanting things to change for the better, and I don’t know who that person is.”
Political reverberations
Richard Flanagan, a CUNY political science professor, said Adams’ recent words suggest he hasn’t taken a lesson from last year’s election and isn’t necessarily seeing
— or concerned about — the broader political picture for fellow Dems.
“It’s a good analogy — the crime stuff. He didn’t sit easy in the saddle with it, and he got a little hysterical, and now he’s getting a little hysterical again,” he said.
Flanagan predicted Adams’ recent remarks could hurt not only Democrats running in battleground congressional districts, but also Biden, who’s facing reelection next year and hasn’t been doing too well in recent head-to-head polls with potential Republican nominees.
“He handed the Republicans a gift,” Flanagan said. “If the road to taking back the House goes through New York and this is hurting that effort in some of these suburban districts — Westchester and Long Island districts — then there is a shadow of [Biden’s] campaign being hurt for sure.”
Espaillat suggested such predictions about next year’s election are premature, though, and said he agrees with Adams that one of the first priorities in addressing the migrant crisis should be getting migrants moved quickly in a position to work legally. Among the measures Espaillat wants to see Biden implement are extending Temporary Protected Status to asylum seekers from countries such as Venezuela and getting eligible migrants to take advantage of a new app put out by the federal government that allows for expedited work permits.
“The New York delegation has been consistently meeting and pushing for an agenda that will help resolve the crisis at different levels because there is not one fix,” Espaillat said. “I think the Biden administration will act, and I think they’ll act sooner rather than later.”
Adams’ rhetoric could also affect Gov. Hochul’s efforts, according to one staffer in her administration.
That source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they can speak openly on the matter, said Adams would be better off focusing his rhetoric on the eventual boon the influx of migrants might mean to the city and state’s workforce, rather than the immediate challenges the city faces. Doing that would be more persuasive to upstate towns on the fence about accepting more asylum seekers, according to the source.
“When you frame it as a problem that can’t be solved, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” the Hochul administration insider said. “That’s going to make it that much harder to get Syracuse to accept refugees, to get these counties that are already so resistant to it to take more. All they have to do is show that video clip of Eric Adams saying this is destroying New York, this is a problem without a solution, and they’re going to say, ‘Why would we take that into our communities, too?’ It’s just a total lack of strategy.”