by Sharelle Burt
March 27, 2024
Maybe it was for the best…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was scheduled to take a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border but canceled over growing safety concerns.
Adams was slated to visit Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, on March 24 to meet with U.S. immigration leaders, as NYC struggles to provide housing to new migrants seeking asylum. However, spokesperson Amaris Cockfield said the U.S. State Department waved flags of safety concerns at one of his stops, resulting in the trip being canceled.
Initially invited by Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande, Adams’ team had been looking forward to meeting ahead of Holy Week. “As Lent draws to a close, our team was excited to stand with faith and humanitarian leaders who have dedicated their lives to serving the most needy among us, and we were eager to discuss our work in New York City and explore new ways to collaborate with leaders in cities across the country,” Cockfield said.
“We hope to continue our partnership with these nationally recognized Latino leaders and organizations as we look for concrete solutions to resolve the crisis at the border.”
Adams started out as an advocate for migrants, welcoming them with open arms to the Big Apple. In June 2023 he announced a two-year partnership with New York Disaster Interfaith Services, allowing 50 houses of worship or faith-based spaces to provide overnight shelter for up to 19 single adult men per location.
Saying he was “proud” of the partnership, Adams announced additional plans to open five offsite daytime centers to provide resources and support for those in need.
But then things shifted six months later. To control the number of migrants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was sending to the city, Adams signed an executive order in December 2023 limiting when charter buses could drop off migrants in the city. After 14 charter buses of migrants arrived from Texas in a single night, the order now requires charter bus companies to provide 32 hours of advance notice before migrants arrive, and limits the times of day they can be dropped off.
After visiting El Paso in January 2024, Adams criticized the federal government’s response to the influx of immigrants stepping into U.S. cities far from the border. In October 2023 he took a four-day tour through Latin America, making stops in Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, and advised people to stop making the dangerous journey to the U.S.
In the past two years, close to 180,000 migrants have poured into New York City’s five boroughs. With more than 64,000 sanctioned in its care through more than 200 emergency shelter sites, city officials and human rights advocates secured a deal to suspend the city’s “right to shelter” policy.
Also called a “Homeless Bill of Rights,” the measure was supposed to strengthen legal protections for the homeless after New York City saw a record number of people in its shelter system. Passed with bipartisan support by the City Council, shelters were growing beyond capacity with the arrival of 70,000 international migrants last spring.
