DON'T BLAME ME!
Eric on migrants: I didn’t write laws
Mayor Adams fiercely defended his handling of the city’s migrant housing crisis Thursday, arguing he “did not write” laws blamed for fueling a deluge of new arrivals.
The adamant pushback came as two members of New York’s GOP congressional delegation pitched legislation to ban the use of public schools for shelters — and for a federal requirement on where asylum-seekers wind up living.
“I don’t think anyone [writing the laws] thought about a humanitarian crisis on this level,” Adams said in an appearance on 77 WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
“Eric Adams did not write these laws, but we have a New York state Constitution,” he declared, noting his administration must “abide by the law” as migrants from the US southern border continue to pour in.
Last week, Adams made headlines with a claim that 900 asylumseekers arrived in New York City in a single day. The city is housing more than 41,000 new arrivals across 150 overstretched shelters.
“How do you [allow asylumseekers in] correctly? New York City should not be the blueprint for every other state to say, ‘Send whoever . . . they should go to New York City.’ That’s just not right.”
Adams also addressed his administration’s recent move to modify the Big Apple’s “right to shelter” policy, though he clarified that the rule was different from the controversial idea of a sanctuary city.
“Those who are here as asylumseekers are not here illegally — they were paroled into the country by Border Patrol,” he said.
“People are already incentivized [to come to America] . . . We’ve got 70,000 migrants that have come through the city . . . the floodgates are already open.”
Gov. Hochul then stepped in to help, surveying locations at SUNY campuses including Buffalo, Albany and Stony Brook as possible sites, but wouldn’t confirm the locations at a press conference Wednesday.
The very idea infuriated Hudson Valley GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro.
“I’m fighting to stop Gov. Hochul from using schools and colleges as shelters for migrants. Upstate New York taxpayers pay thousands of dollars to support our public education system. SUNY college students pay thousands of dollars for room and board,” he said in a statement on proposed legislation to ban the practice. “Our schools are not shelters.”
On Thursday, Molinaro joined Long Island Rep. Andrew Garbarino in a piece of legislation that would require federal agencies to issue monthly reports regarding any migrant transportation and relocation.