NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams addressed concerns Tuesday that the city is pawning off its migrant crisis on Canada, saying that the city has no “recruitment campaign” in place to redirect people north of the border.
“There’s no coordinated effort. We don’t have a website. We don’t have a recruitment campaign,” he said. “We’re not telling people: Go to another country.”
A day earlier, after spending a night at a migrant relief center in Brooklyn, Adams acknowledged that some asylum seekers have expressed a desire to go to other parts of the U.S. and to Canada and that the city is aiding in the “reticketing process.” He fielded several questions Tuesday about the city’s approach and contended his administration is not pushing migrants to leave the city.
“There is no role that the city is playing to tell migrants to go to Canada,” he said at an unrelated news conference in Manhattan. “Part of our intake process is to speak to people to find out their needs.”
Since last spring, the city has struggled to absorb approximately 43,000 migrants who have come here seeking asylum in the U.S. Most are coming from South and Central America, and some were bused to the city from Southern states like Texas.
With the city’s homeless shelters overflowing, Adams has resorted to housing the asylum seekers in hotels and relief centers, but those policies have led to controversies like the decision to move men staying at a Manhattan hotel to a relief center in Brooklyn.
Part of the city’s intake process includes talking with migrants about where they ultimately want to go and how the city can assist in that goal.
Adams, who several months ago slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for trying to score political points by directing migrants to New York, asserted Tuesday that many migrants “were forced to come to New York.”
“Many of them did not want to come to New York. A substantial number stay here, but many of them did not want to come here,” the mayor said. “They wanted to go somewhere else. They were not given that option, so unlike other municipalities, we are speaking to people, interacting with them and saying, ‘What are your needs?’ ”
If migrants have family outside the city, Adams added, “We want to help them connect with their family.”
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy noted that unlike elected leaders in other states, city officials have “not chartered any buses or planes” to move migrants.
“Nor have we sent people to Canada,” he said. “As we have repeatedly said, we want to help asylum seekers stabilize their lives whether in New York City or elsewhere.”
