Mayor Adams didn’t make Washington hearing, but his remarks on migrants did

New York City was portrayed as a key victim of the Biden administration’s border policy in a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday.

Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial remark earlier this month that the recent migrant influx “will destroy New York City” was mentioned at least five times. One Republican lawmaker played a video clip of Adams’ remarks before beginning his questioning.

Congressional Republicans touted the city’s financial woes — and their rare agreement with Adams, a Democrat — as proof of the Biden administration's failure to crack down on unlawful border crossings.

Rep. Mark E. Green (R-Tennessee), who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security, mentioned Adams’ remarks in his introduction to rebuff any anticipated claims from Democrats about how immigrants, regardless of their legal status, help bolster the economy.

“If that were the case, Mayor Adams in New York City, a Democrat, would not be screaming at the top of his lungs how this mass wave is destroying his city,” Green said.

The hearing — titled “The Financial Costs of Mayorkas’ Open Border,” a reference to the current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — discussed the impacts of recent immigration in border towns and other cities where border state officials have bused migrants in the past year.

Democrats called the hearing a “political dog and pony show” aimed at unfairly blaming the Biden administration, rather than cooperating to prevent a looming government shutdown. Several budget bills have yet to be passed by the required Oct. 1 deadline.

“They want a wedge issue, not solutions,” said ranking committee member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi). “They want to distract from their own infighting and obvious inability to govern.”

City Hall spokesman Charles Lutvak, reached by Gothamist following the hearing, similarly blamed "Trump Republicans" he said had "blocked the comprehensive immigration reform our country needs."

"Like New Yorkers, we won’t let today’s side show distract from Washington’s inaction," Lutvak said. "New York City has largely managed this humanitarian crisis on its own for more than a year, and it’s long past time for Republicans in Congress to show national leadership on this national issue with much-needed funding, expedited work permits so asylum seekers can provide for themselves, and comprehensive immigration reform that has stalled for decades.”

New York City Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, was one of the witnesses in the hearing, alongside Jonathan Lines, a district supervisor on the Yuma County Board of Supervisors in Arizona.

More than 100,000 migrants have been offered a place to stay in New York City since last spring. And more than 59,000 migrants currently live in city shelters. Under a decades-old state Supreme Court mandate, anyone seeking shelter in the city must be offered a place to stay.

The city projects that the costs for housing and caring for the migrants will top $12 billion by June 2025 — a figure the mayor has cited in recent calls for budget cuts of up to 15% by the spring.

Borelli said that while he often disagrees with Adams, he agreed that the migrant influx would “destroy” the city. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, a Republican from Long Island, said the same.

Borelli also pointed to the community pushback against potential new migrant shelters popping up in local neighborhoods.

“They are right to be alarmed,” he said. “Unless we reverse the disastrous policy decisions that have brought us to this point, on both the local and federal level, there will be no end in sight, and this migrant crisis eventually will destroy New York.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director of the American Immigration Council, pointed to the economic contributions of migrants — even refugees who receive “extensive federal support on arrival” — and the need for immigration bolster the country’s flatlining population.

He said the country’s “outdated” immigration laws have strained local budgets, singling out the 1996 Congressional decision to bar asylum applicants from receiving work permits until 180 days after filing their asylum applications.

“It bears repeating: Migrants wouldn't need long-term shelter if they could pay for an apartment themselves,” Reichlin-Melnick said, pointing to an option many migrants would prefer.

He later added, “You go, you talk to these people, they'll tell you, I want to be out supporting myself. I want to be out helping my family. I don't want to be sitting here in a shelter twiddling my thumbs and waiting for months and months to go by.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson for the Adams administration.