A high advisor to Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday known as for the federal authorities to “shut the borders” to be able to stop extra migrants from coming to New York Metropolis.
“We want the federal authorities, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do its job: shut the borders,” Adams’ senior advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin stated throughout an interview on PIX11. “And till you shut the borders, you’ll want to give you a full-on decompression technique the place you possibly can take all of our migrants and transfer them all through all of our 50 states.”
Lewis-Martin’s feedback marked an escalation within the rhetoric from the mayor’s workplace surrounding the town’s migrant disaster. Metropolis officers estimate greater than 116,000 migrants — primarily asylum-seekers — have come to New York Metropolis since April 2022. Lewis-Martin stated greater than 61,000 migrants stay underneath the town’s care.
The decision to “shut the borders” resembled feedback made by a number of right-wing members of Congress who threatened to close down the federal authorities if strict border insurance policies weren’t included in a brand new funding invoice. The lawmakers known as for the return of a “stay in Mexico coverage” instituted underneath former President Donald Trump that stored asylum-seekers from getting into the nation till their instances have been processed in court docket.
Congress authorized a short lived funding invoice on Saturday night time, averting a authorities shutdown, however didn’t implement any adjustments to immigration insurance policies.
Lewis-Martin’s feedback additionally got here as the town’s attorneys are difficult New York’s longstanding right-to-shelter regulation in court docket, arguing the mandate shouldn’t apply to new arrivals.
“The appropriate-to-shelter was meant for our indigenous homeless pop,” Lewis-Martin stated on Sunday. “We argue that we must always not must shelter all of those immigrants.”
Officers have stated the town has since final yr spent greater than $2 billion to look after the brand new arrivals.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday additionally stated the federal authorities ought to take extra steps to scale back the variety of folks getting into the nation — however didn’t go so far as Lewis-Martin in calling for the borders to shut.
“We would like them to have a restrict on who can come throughout the border,” Hochul stated throughout an look on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It’s too open proper now. Individuals coming from everywhere in the world are discovering their approach by merely saying they want asylum and nearly all of them appear to be ending up within the streets of New York.”
