NYC Mayor: GOP Governors Busing Illegal Immigrants Created ‘Humanitarian Crisis’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday that Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida have created a “humanitarian crisis” by sending migrants from the U.S.–Mexico border up north.

“As the mayor of El Paso stated these migrants and asylum seekers are not coming to any particular city, they’re coming to America,” Adams said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “This is an American crisis that we need to face — a humanitarian crisis that were made by human hands by some of the governors in our southern states.”

Abbott began busing migrants from Texas to New York City and Washington, D.C., in the spring. DeSantis sent 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last week.

The Del Rio, Texas, area had more than 49,500 migrant encounters in July alone — more than the population of the city itself, which has a population of just over 34,500 people. By contrast, the year-round population of Martha’s Vineyard is 17,000 people and the island welcomed just 50 migrants when the “humanitarian crisis” was triggered.

Host Jonathan Karl noted that Adams has said the Big Apple is reaching a “breaking point” as 11,000 migrants have arrived in the city since May.

“But look at what we just heard from the mayor of El Paso,” Karl said to Adams. “The other day they had 2,000 in a single day. How is it that New York City is overwhelmed when it’s a fraction of what we’re seeing on the border?”

Adams replied: “Well what’s happening, a playbook that many of the Republican governors, DeSantis and Abbott, are using is not to ship those migrants out to other states, particularly to states like New York.”

He called on the governors to coordinate with the federal government and the blue states where they are sending migrants.

Adams argued that it is an easier transition for migrants when they have sponsors.

“We have Venezuelan communities in America, let’s coordinate in that fashion like we’ve done with other large communities we have in New York City where we’re able to coordinate, get sponsors, work with our non-government organizations,” he said. “That is what crisis calls for — it calls for coordination.”

He added: “There was no coordination at all with Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis just wanted to use this political ploy instead of understanding these are people, these are families, these are human beings.”

Adams went on to claim Abbott is sending migrants on a 45-hour bus ride without any proper food, water or medical care and that Abbott’s office would not coordinate with him “because I don’t believe it was politically expedient for them to coordinate, it was more important for them to do this basically political showmanship that you’re seeing now.”

Asked if he plans to visit border, Adams said: “We don’t have to stand up on the border to state that the crisis [Abbott] created is a real crisis.”

The mayor called on Abbott “to be the chief executive that he is” and coordinate on immigration. 

Abbott previously said he decided to send busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., and New York City “because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies,” saying that “the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe.”

“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” he said when the first busload arrived in New York this summer.

Abbott noted late last month that Texas has “made over 19,000 arrests, seized over 335.5M lethal fentanyl doses, & sent over 7,400 migrants on buses to DC and over 1,500 to NYC.”

Asked if he believes New York City’s status as a sanctuary city is attracting more people to cross the border into the U.S., Adams said Sunday, “No, not at all.”

“The city has always been a sanctuary city and we’ve always managed those who wanted to come to New York City to pursue the American dream,” he said.