NYC Mayor Adams likens GOP response to migrants as three-card monte-like stunt, compares Texas Gov. Abbott’s behavior to COVID
Mayor Adams described Republican efforts to flood Democratic cities with migrants as a “political stunt” designed to distract voters from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to roll back abortion rights and the GOP’s gun policies.
The accusation, which Adams leveled at a Tuesday press conference in City Hall, is perhaps his harshest rebuke yet of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whom he compared to COVID, and to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has also directed migrants to locales controlled by Democrats.
“The Republican Party’s desire was to attempt to overshadow what they’ve done with the woman’s right to choose [and] on the proliferation of guns,” he said. “I think it’s a complete political stunt.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (left) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (right)
Adams wouldn’t blame President Biden or former President Donald Trump for the situation at the southern border, saying that his concern is “not to try to figure out national politics.” Instead, he singled out Abbott and DeSantis for sending the migrants to places like the Big Apple, Washington D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard without coordinating with leaders from those towns.
The “stunt,” Adams added, is what’s led to the current situation the city now faces in its homeless shelters, which have become overcrowded as the number of migrants coming into the city has swelled to about 13,000. Of those, about 9,500 are being housed in the city’s shelter system, Adams estimated.
One of them, a mother of two, killed herself in a homeless shelter over the weekend. Adams said Tuesday that the city is investigating her death, but declined to offer more information.
Newly arrived migrants are pictured in a closed holding area at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been shipping thousands of asylum seekers to Democratic run states. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/)
“This is a humanitarian crisis created by human hands,” Adams said, referring primarily to Abbott. “The crisis that’s been created in New York City is coming from a governor who is fueling the crisis. And he was intentional about what he was doing. He’s been very clear about that.
“It is difficult to predict the erratic behavior of an erratic governor,” Adams continued, likening Abbott to the coronavirus. “I think the only perfect analogy is the erratic behavior of COVID is the erratic behavior of Abbott. You don’t know what they’re going to do.”
