At least 11,000 immigrants have entered the city’s homeless shelters since May, including 2,500 who arrived on buses chartered by Abbott — leading Adams to declare the shelters “at their last resort.”
The city has opened 23 emergency shelters and expects to open 38 more, the mayor said.
The City Council is now looking into the possibility of bringing in the boats as temporary housing, something Adams said former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s administration considered to address homelessness, but did not pursue.
“We look at that as a temporary measure, not a permanent measure. The permanent measure is getting people into housing,” he said in a CBS interview. “We have to find temporary measures to deal with this issue.”
In a series of TV shows on Sunday, Adams pleaded with Abbott to at least talk about the buses being sent to the city but said he was fired.
“This is an American crisis that we have to deal with — a humanitarian crisis that was made by people, by some southern governors,” Adams said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Democratic mayor accused Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who last week flew planes full of asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts — of using the move to divert attention away from damaging political conflicts. for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. Texas also dropped off a bus full of people outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris this weekend.
“This is to cover up the destruction of civil liberties that these two governors are engaging in,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show,” referring to the recent Supreme Court rulings. repealing abortion rights and gun restrictions.
He called the actions of the governors “inhumane, anti-American.”
City Hall officials called Abbott’s office and asked him to coordinate with the city on the arrival of the buses, to allow contact with family members and sponsors of the arrivals and to arrange a shelter.
“They took the call, they announced that they will cooperate,” he said on ABC. “And they don’t cooperate at all, because I don’t think it is appropriate for them to cooperate politically. It’s more of this, the real, political drama that you see. “
The Abbott government has put some migrants with Covid-19 on buses, Adams said. Others were forced to board even though they wanted to go to places other than New York.
“We have people who are Covid-positive on the bus. We have people who are dehydrated, they don’t have enough food. Some of them have been tagged like you’re tagging an animal,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” .” “This is a disease in our whole country.”
On a trip to Washington, D.C., last week, Adams said he met with Sens. Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Biden administration officials for federal aid.
He also called on the federal government to change the rules to allow asylum seekers to work legally in the United States without waiting six months.
“I don’t think it really makes sense to let people be here for months without the ability to apply, especially when we’re looking for workers in different areas in our city,” he said. it’s on CNN.
Adams again denied that he wanted to reassess the city’s homeless ordinance, which guarantees a bed for every homeless person. He said instead that he wants to review the city’s actions in implementing what is needed, but did not specify what actions or how they will change.
