With the migrant crisis having made its way from the U.S. southern border all the way to the East Coast, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has traveled to Mexico to deliver a message: “Mi casa es su casa, [but] there is no more room in New York.”
During an Oct. 5 visit to America’s neighbor to the south, Adams said his city is “at capacity” following a migrant surge that has resulted in New York trying to shelter and provide for more than 120,000 migrants over the past year.
“We are neighbors. We are familia. Mi casa es su casa. Your struggles are my struggles,” Adams said inside Puebla’s state congress building. Migrants “are our future and we cannot lose one of them,” he added.
Shortly after, Adams spoke in more blunt terms with reporters.
“There is no more room in New York. Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not,” he said. “We don’t want to put people in congregate shelters. We don’t want people to think they will be employed.”
Days before, Adams sought to suspend his city’s legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it, telling a judge that the city should be able to temporarily lift the mandate during an emergency.
“With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” Adams said.
Adams’ latest statements are part of a four-day junket through Latin America to discourage people from coming to New York City.
After his visit to Puebla, he is traveling to Ecuador to meet with local officials to learn about their “asylum integration” programs.
On Saturday, he will head to Colombia to meet with local officials and visit the Darién Gap, a geographic region in the Isthmus of Panama that connects North and South America.
Currently, the influx of migrants entering New York City has reached an average of 600 per day — double the number coming in a year ago.
