Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to slash the budget for every city agency by a total of 15%, citing the ongoing migrant crisis as a primary reason. The cuts and some comments he made have prompted progressives to angrily label Adams anti-immigrant while more vocal conservatives are chanting “Close the borders.”
City Council estimates are that the cuts could total up to $10 billion taken from child care, parks, hospitals, schools, fire stations, homeless services, city staff, and social services. On Tuesday, Sept. 19, the progressive caucus held a large gathering at City Hall to protest the “harmful and unnecessary” city budget cuts.
“This is a person that is making it so that New York City is devoid of opportunity,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso about Adams. “There’s a lack of leadership in this city.”
Reynoso said that Adams is basically “giving up” in the face of a crisis, which he said is truly not the New York way.
Other electeds, including Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and Councilmembers Shahana Hanif, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Lincoln Restler, Carmen De La Rosa, Tiffany Cabán, Chi Ossé, and Alexa Avilés, were in attendance to support grassroot activists on the frontlines of the asylum seeker crisis. They were joined by organizations like Make the Road, New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Legal Aid Society, CUNY Rising Alliance, Freedom Agenda, and Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM). Many present were descendants of immigrants, from households where people were undocumented, or had personal connections to the immigrant community.
Melissa Johnson of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) said that the proposed cuts and 60-day shelter limit policy will “undoubtedly cause harm” to vulnerable migrant groups and Black communities. “What is happening is that as there is investment in policing and prisons, asylum seekers as they are coming in are losing out on public benefits that all vulnerable folks should have access to and are being put in vulnerable conditions by being kicked out of shelters, out on the streets, and put in the police-to-deportation pipeline, and we say no,” said Johnson. “Migrant rights are human rights.”
Since last year, the city has opened more than 200 emergency shelters and seen more than 110,000 migrants arrive with about 60,000 people still here. The city estimated that the crisis will cost about $12 billion over three fiscal years, according to Adams’s team. To compensate, the mayor ordered a 5% reduction (three times) in city-funded spending through the Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG).
“Since the large influx of asylum seekers to our city began last spring, we have warned New Yorkers that every city service could be impacted by this crisis if we did not get the support we needed,” said Adams in a statement. “Coupling the costs of a national crisis that has fallen onto New York City with COVID funding that is running out and reduced revenue growth, our city’s financial future may be at risk if we do not act.”
In a statement, Adams continued to ask for federal and state funding, as well as expedited work authorization and comprehensive immigration reform. While most of the speakers at the rally agreed with Adams that more aid is needed from higher levels of government and quicker routes to work permits are essential, the progressive caucus was adamant that the 15% in cuts “far exceeded” the estimated migrant expenses over the next few years.
“To long-time New Yorkers, particularly Black and brown, working class New Yorkers, who have been struggling for a very long time: The reason you are struggling is not because of the migrants,” said Williams at the rally. “It is because of failed policies of government.”
Williams added that city leaders have proposed budget cuts prior to the asylum seekers arrivals and to correlate this current round of cuts to them is “disingenuous at best.” He advocated for people to lead with more hope and positivity and revenue raising options instead of cuts.
Adams is not completely without supporters on the Democrat side, though.
Governor Kathy Hochul is considering first-time legislation for state-issued work permits for migrants and asylum seekers to circumvent the federal government. Senators James Sanders Jr. and Leroy Comrie, and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn held a rally on Tuesday, Sept. 12, defending the budget cuts as well as Adams’s warning that the city could be “destroyed” if it doesn’t get more assistance from Albany and the White House. They said that the crisis was being exploited to divide people.
Unsurprisingly, some far-right Republicans, who initiated the crisis by busing migrants to Democrat-led cities, are also praising Adams’s comments and using his words to hypercriticize President Joe Biden before the 2024 presidential election.
Meanwhile, a cascade of vitriolic and anti-immigrant counter-protesters in the city has become emboldened. One man crashed through the rally at City Hall, screaming “Close the borders” before being bodily escorted out.
“Hecklers like that are breeded through the rhetoric by our mayor and Republicans alike,” said Osse.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.