Eased tensions between Mayor Adams and Biden administration on migrants — for now

At least for now, there are strains of civility and cooperation between Mayor Eric Adams and the Biden administration on the ongoing migrant crisis. The question is: How long will it last?

Adams and members of the city’s congressional delegation on Thursday met with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Washington, amid a steady rise in the number of migrants coming into the city.

The mayor’s relationship with the Biden administration over the issue has been decidedly rocky, but there appeared to be a tangible outcome from the meeting – the appointment of a new Homeland Security liaison for the city.

The administration has been flat-footed in its response, but I don’t think Adams' criticisms of them have been helpful.

Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies

“We appreciate Secretary Mayorkas’ commitment to visiting the city and designating someone at DHS to serve as a point-person on our asylum seeker needs,” Adams said in a statement after the meeting. “We look forward to his visit and learning more about DHS’ plans for how this role will operate.”

The meeting came as the city’s shelter population crossed 107,000, including 56,000 migrants. Migrants and immigrant rights advocates contend conditions at shelters are getting steadily worse, prompting some asylum-seekers to form temporary tent encampments on the streets.

Through it all, the mayor has repeatedly pushed the Biden administration to lend a hand, including asking it to develop a “decompression” strategy that would help distribute asylum-seekers in more cities across the country. But with scant assistance flowing to New York, Adams has at times vented his frustration, including in April, when he said , “the president and the White House have failed New York City” on immigration.

After the outburst, the Biden reelection campaign in May dropped Adams as a national surrogate, in a move widely interpreted as punishment for the public criticism.

“The administration has been flat-footed in its response, but I don’t think Adams' criticisms of them have been helpful,” said Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies, in New York.

Adams was joined Thursday by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gregory Meeks, among others. The New York contingent pushed for federal funding as well as faster pathways to work authorization for migrants.

The meeting closely followed another immigration development: a ruling on Tuesday by a federal judge declaring the Biden administration’s asylum policy to be in violation of federal law. The judge stayed his own ruling for two weeks so the administration could decide whether to appeal.

The Biden policy, instituted in May, was meant to restrict the number of people who could apply for asylum by limiting it to those who arrived at official ports of entry. However, critics argued that the policy was in violation of a statutory scheme set up by Congress.

The statutes that are relevant are explicitly clear that an individual has a right to apply for asylum if they arrive in the United States, no matter how they arrive in the United States.

Steven Schulman, an attorney

“The statutes that are relevant are explicitly clear that an individual has a right to apply for asylum if they arrive in the United States, no matter how they arrive in the United States,” said Steven H. Schulman, an attorney with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP who represented a group of former judges who filed an amicus brief against the policy.

The court ruling, “was crucial to ensure the safeguarding of our asylum system,” said Theo Oshiro, the co-executive director of Make the Road New York. “Biden’s asylum policy causes harm to thousands of people seeking refuge from dangerous situations.”

Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, said the number of people seeking asylum at the border had “dramatically declined” in the months since the Biden administration implemented its policy.

“If it was at a peak of 10,000 a day, it came down even to about 3,000 a day in the last two months,” said Chishti.

But Chishti and other experts said it’s not entirely clear how much the decrease is due to the policy itself.

“I mean, we had much harsher rules during the Trump administration, and it didn't serve to keep people low,” said Paul O’Dwyer, an immigration attorney in New York.

By Chishti’s estimate, in the last two years, close to 2 million people who arrived at the border were admitted into the country under Title 42, the Trump-era policy meant to reduce crossings — but he said that had turned into “a big boon for smugglers.”

Queens immigration attorney Pert Hora said under Title 42, “most were being released on parole” after being apprehended, only to attempt another border crossing.

“For as long as I have been doing this (Obama, Trump, Biden) nothing has kept the asylum seekers away,” Hora said in an email.

And in the current political climate, few expect Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Oshiro of Make the Road New York said “the potential scope of action” is certainly limited, “primarily due to Republican intransigence.”

Still, he said, Biden has “significant scope of action," and can use it to strengthen the asylum framework, expand resources for communities like New York that are contending with growing migrant populations, and expedite work authorization so migrants can support themselves.

“His lack of intervention seems to reflect a misguided view that immigration as an issue is a political liability,” Oshiro said in an email. “We urge his administration to embrace the legal and moral imperative to protect asylum seekers and immigrants and the political opportunity of supporting these communities.”

This article was updated to include the name of the law firm where attorney Steven H. Schulman is a partner.