Mayor Adams won’t stop blaming Biden for the migrant influx. Both Dems could get stung.

It was the shot heard across Fox News.

A visibly frustrated Mayor Eric Adams told reporters in April 2023 that President Joe Biden had “failed” New York City amid the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants bussed from Texas.

Days later, at a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., Adams said the city was being “destroyed” by the crisis. Then in November, he blamed the lack of federal aid for the city’s budget cuts, saying the national government had “defunded” New York.

And last week, he joined an NYPD raid of a robbery ring, said to involve migrants, as his police commissioner described a “wave of migrant crime” in the city. Officials have been unable to provide data to substantiate that claim.

As Biden heads toward a rematch with former President Donald Trump, Adams’ breach of party unity has become a problem for Democrats. For months, he’s launched unrelenting broadsides against the federal government and honed a damaging political message: Biden is failing to handle the migrant crisis in America’s biggest city.

In so doing, the mayor has helped furnish a potent political weapon for Republicans. The influx in New York City, which had more than 170,000 new arrivals since the spring of 2022, has sparked angry protests and a steady barrage of criticism over Democrats’ immigration and border policies.

For Adams, who has been criticized over his management of the crisis, deflecting blame is a risky gambit that may come at the cost of further alienating himself from his party.

New Yorkers are among the most intense opponents to Trump, a Queens native whose 2016 election ushered in days of protests, the removal of his name across residential buildings he developed and a wave of progressive politics. In 2020, Biden captured more than three quarters of the vote across the five boroughs.

In contrast to Adams, high-profile members of his party, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, have recently focused their attacks on Trump and House Republicans for blocking a bipartisan immigration bill that would restrict border crossings. While Hochul has also demanded more federal aid, she has tempered her criticism against Biden more than Adams.

“The choices are there,” said Joseph Viteritti, a political science professor at Hunter College. “At this point, Adams has the option of either redirecting his criticisms toward the Republicans or not. And that will say a lot about him.”

“In the end, his goal is to be elected to a second term in New York City,” he added.

Made for the moment?

Recent polls show historically low approval ratings tied to dissatisfaction over the way Adams has handled the crisis as well as budget cuts. That along with multiple federal corruption investigations into his campaign have fueled talks of a rare primary challenge for an incumbent mayor.

“There’s an obvious political cost to his rhetoric — frayed relations with the part of government that can do the most to help you,” said Matthew Wing, a Democratic consultant who previously worked under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “There should at least be a corresponding political benefit, such as winning over the public to your side. But so far the polls don’t show that this approach is working.”

Adams has defended his complaints as merely his way of advocating for New Yorkers. The city has thus far been awarded only $156 million in federal aid for a crisis projected to cost $10 billion through next summer. And the Biden administration has yet to figure out how to thwart Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactic of sending migrants to Democratic strongholds.

“Once you are elected, it's not about party, it's about our city,” Adams said last week when asked whether he would dial back his rhetoric amid a critical election year. “I believe in New York, and this has hurt us."

The following day, during his annual "Tin Cup Day" visit to Albany, the mayor asked for billions of dollars more in migrant funding from state lawmakers, saying he saw “no relief in sight” from the White House.

‘Be in unison’

The migrant crisis is already shaping key congressional races in New York. In what is considered a bellwether for the November elections, voters on Tuesday will decide who will replace George Santos in a swing district covering Queens and Long Island.

Democrat Tom Suozzi, an Adams ally, appears to be in a tight race against Republican Mazi Pilip, a relative newcomer who has accused her opponent of having “opened the border.”

Suozzi said Pilip’s opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill would lead to more migrant arrivals.

Hochul has similarly criticized the GOP for sinking the immigration legislation in recent days, describing House Republicans as “lemmings jumping off a cliff behind the chief lemming of all, Donald Trump” during an interview last week on CNN.

The governor called Biden a “national security president” who fought for the deal and said Republicans will feel the effect at the ballot box.

“The Republicans are going to wear this,” she added. “And it starts on Tuesday right here in the state of New York.”

Her remarks were in sharp contrast to a speech she made last summer when she criticized the White House for not doing enough to help with the influx

Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the Nassau County and New York State Democratic parties, said Democrats should “be in unison” in attacking Republicans over the collapse of the bipartisan deal.

But he dismissed the notion that Adams’ criticism would affect the 2024 elections.

“I think what is going to move voters are sensible solutions to really fixing the problem,” Jacobs said. The mayor, he contended, was merely focused on addressing the local effects of the crisis.

Tapping into anxieties over public safety have been a successful line of attack for Republicans, most recently during the 2022 elections when New York lost four congressional seats and Hochul found herself in a tighter than expected race against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

At the time, some Democrats faulted Adams’ repeated emphasis on crime and criticism of bail reform as feeding a Republican narrative that was not supported by the data.

The same tensions are playing out again. Partial footage released by the NYPD of migrants attacking officers in Times Square went viral and spurred a wave of recrimination from Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers are now demanding that the city revise sanctuary laws that limit cooperation between local authorities and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The mayor distanced himself from the policy, saying “I didn’t pass that law.”

In the wake of the Times Square assault, some elected officials expressed alarm at the misinformed statements about crime involving migrants. A longer video released from the Manhattan district attorney’s office appeared to conflict with police accounts that said one of the men had refused to comply with an order to clear the sidewalk.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams acknowledged the politicization around immigration during a critical election year, but stopped short of directly criticizing the mayor.

“I can only say that remarks like that and made by others tends to damage and absolutely muddy the waters when it comes to perception around asylum seekers and migrants in the city of New York,” she told reporters last week.

Neither Adams nor police have provided evidence that the city is witnessing an increase in crime driven by migrants. The mayor has been careful to say that the overwhelming number of migrants coming to the city are seeking to find work and establish new lives.

Jacobs said the city’s recent spotlighting of crimes allegedly committed by migrants had “magnified” what was in fact a “very small issue.”

Asked if that had been harmful to Democrats, he replied, “I think he’s looking for solutions for a problem and to demonstrate to New Yorkers that he’s on top of it.”

Jacobs then added: “What the collateral consequences are of that I don’t know.”

Jon Campbell contributed reporting.