New York Mayor Adams discusses migrant crisis he says could "destroy' the city

Interview

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This issue will destroy New York City, destroy New York City.

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Every night, we have to be creative to find places to allow people to stay.

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Thank you very much. Good to be here.

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Well, it went well, extremely well.

It's always exciting, the beginning of the school year, watching the optimism, some crying faces leaving mommy for the first time. But it was extremely, extremely smooth transition ending summer. And when you talk about the 20,000 unsheltered children, a large number of them are migrant asylum seekers.

We already had 18,000 last year. We need to be clear on that. And we absorbed those 18,000, and we're continuing to do what's right. And it is exciting when you see a child enter the school system at the beginning of the year, not speaking English at all, but leaving at the end of the year able to communicate in English, learning new ways of learning and interacting and embracing new friends.

So we're going to continue to do our job to educate these scholars and these young people.

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Oh, we need more.

We have been extremely clear on this. New York City has been carrying its burden, for the most part, on its own. We commend the governor and the billion dollars she got in the last budget that we have to spend down on. But when you look at what is costing the city, in not only dollars and cents, but also in man and woman power, it is an awesome responsibility.

We were creative this year to allow those teachers who are Spanish speakers or dual language to be able to leave and get there -- to leave their current assignment, if they desire to do so, and use their tenure and not lose their tenure. This was a technical issue that we were able to overcome with the state's help.

And so we're going to always need more to address this major issue that we're facing here in New York City.

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One thing we need to be extremely clear, this is unfair to migrants. It's unfair to New York City residents. It is unfair to this entire country, when you're looking at what's happening in big cities across America, Chicago just acknowledging they're moving their migrants out of police precincts and into tents, the same thing you're seeing in Los Angeles and other parts, El Paso, Brownsville.

This is just wrong. And what we believe the federal government can do is just simply, one, have a real decompression strategy all over the entire country, so cities are not absorbing this issue. And particularly in those areas where you're having these major concerns, there should be a state of emergency that the federal government is calling to make sure that we are getting the support to these cities right away.

And this is within the control of the federal government. And then we need to expedite this labor-intensive process of allowing people to have the right to work. And I believe we need to extend the TPS status to give them the right to work, so they can provide for their own care. This is all they're asking.

Migrants asking to be able to work like every other American that came to this country, that's the precursor to the American dream. And if we don't do that, we are harming not only the migrants. We're creating the black market of employees and workers that is extremely harmful and dangerous to the city and this country.

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Well, let's be clear. I did not say migrants would destroy this city. This crisis is going to harm migrants, and it is going to harm long-term New Yorkers.

We're all in this together. And many of those who are criticizing, they didn't spend nights in a migrant humanitarian relief center. 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 $12 billion price tag over three years. 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.

We need to be clear on that. We already had a homeless population. We already had low-income New Yorkers that were struggling to feed themselves and stay into their homes. We are going to transform this city, if this is not under control, with a price tag of $12 billion during the time we're going -- we're going to have a fiscal cliff of federal dollars running out and dealing with the financial challenges we are already facing.

We don't get this right, it is going to destroy this city, and it's going to harm them. And I cannot sugarcoat this to the New York City public. They need to know what we are facing right now.

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And they are right. And I join them. That's why I went down to El Paso. I communicated with the mayor of Brownsville. I have communicated with the mayor of Houston.

They are 100 percent correct. I share that with them. And that is why those Republicans that have blocked immigration reform for years and have gotten in the way of real immigration reform, we came close at one time of, yes, this is a problem that the national government must resolve.

I say this over and over again. No city should be carrying the weight of a national problem. And so I agree with them 100 percent that no city should be going through this. And when you look at the numbers that are coming here to New York City, over 110,000 entered our system. We're getting 10,000 a month.

That's not sustainable. And it's unfair to those who came here to pursue the American dream.

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Thank you. Take care.

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