Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash

September 18, 2022

Jake Tapper: Joining me now is the Mayor of New York City, Democrat Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. More than 11,000 asylum seekers have passed through New York's shelter system since May, including roughly 2,500 bused to New York from Texas. You have warned that New York is "nearing its breaking points," and you've talked about maybe bringing cruise ships to temporarily shelter these migrants. What help do you need from President Biden and the federal government right now that you aren't already getting, and how much longer can New York continue without more resources?

Mayor Eric Adams: We should be clear that this is, as I stated, a humanitarian crisis created by human hands, and it is an all hands on deck moment where we're all supposed to come together and coordinate. Coordination during a crisis is something that we must do together, and that's the federal government, that is also the governor of the state of Texas as well as the governor of the state of Florida. We should not be really treating other cities and municipalities in a manner that we're witnessing now, and so we need resources for housing, resources to make sure that we could properly give people medical care, all of the basic necessities that you would give new arrivals that enter a city.

Tapper: How long until you run out of resources for these migrants?

Mayor Adams: Oh, well, we're not. We're going to follow the law as well as our moral obligation responsibilities. It's going to be challenging. We're experiencing the challenges in doing so, but we are obligated by law here in the City of New York. As has been mentioned over and over again, this is a right-to-shelter city and we're going to fulfill our obligations.

Tapper: What's your message to Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis about the migrants they ship to New York and other blue state areas?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think it's a message for the entire country. These are two governors who are hiding up some of the actions that they've done around gun control, which is really proliferating our country with guns, it's what they did with the women's right to choose. You see, this is their way of covering up what many people have been really concerned about the erosion of basic human rights. We're saying crisis calls for coordination. We received a minimum of six buses early this morning. Over 11,000 individuals, Asylum-seeking migrants, have come to the city already. It is time for us to coordinate this humanitarian crisis that our country is facing.

Tapper: So you're struggling to process the 2,500 migrants sent to you from Texas. Meanwhile, the El Paso sector of the border sees an average of 1,700 migrants crossing every single day. A record 1.9 million migrants have been apprehended on the southwest border this fiscal year alone. Even if you think what these governors are doing is horrific, it seems like you agree this is a crisis that needs more attention from the Biden administration.

Mayor Adams: No, I believe it's a crisis that needs more coordination from our country. This is one country. This is a country that's always been capable of handling those who are seeking to participate in the American dream, and that coordination should be not only on a federal level, the state level, but even cities to cities. We reached out to the El Paso mayor as well as our team attempted to reach out to Governor Abbott. They refused to do any form of coordination. They think the politics of treating people in an inhumane manner to cover up, I believe, what they have done around human rights, the erosion of it for these last few years, is what they believe is the best way to handle it. I just disagree.

Tapper: Would you like to see President Biden and Democrats in Congress make immigration reform a priority using their political capital to finally fix this problem? There hasn't been, as you know, any major immigration reform since the Reagan years.

Mayor Adams: I reached out and traveled to Washington D.C. and had great conversations with the White House as well as with Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and other lawmakers to discuss this issue. I think one of the most important parts that we should move forward is to allow those new arrivals to be able to work. They came here to pursue the American dream. I don't think it really is logical to allow people to be here for months without the ability to seek employment, particularly during a time when we are seeking employees in various sectors in our city.

Tapper: Yeah. We're in the middle of a worker shortage right now, as I don't need to tell you. It's a big problem all over the country. New York's one of the only cities in the United States with a-

Mayor Adams: Yes it is.

Tapper: Right-to-shelter law, meaning that anyone seeking a place to stay must be given one. But you said this week that because of this "new and unforeseen reality," New York's, "prior practices must be reassessed." Are you considering changing New York's right-to-shelter law?

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. We're not considering it and we don't believe we should change the right-to-shelter law. What needs to be looked at is the actual practices, because I'm sure 40 years ago when this law was put into place, no one thought that we will receive 11,000, over 11,000 migrants or asylum seekers, and so it's the practices and parts of it that we want to reexamine to make sure that we can actually carry out an influx. That law was put in place for the individuals who were living in New York and needed shelter under emergency situations. This is a humanitarian crisis and it needs to be viewed that way.

Tapper: Where are you going to put up all these individuals who need shelter if you're running out of space?

Mayor Adams: We're consistently pivoting and shifting to make sure we could accommodate. We opened 23 emergency shelters. We had a smooth transition of close to 1,500 students that moved into our educational facilities. We are going to continue to shift our resources to whatever locations we have from the emergency hotels or the emergency shelter locations. We are used to adjusting. We did it during COVID. We did it during 9/11. This is a city that clearly understands how to stand up and operate according to the crises that are in front of us.

Tapper: Many of the migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say they were falsely told that jobs and housing would be waiting for them when they arrived. Were any of the migrants that have arrived in New York, have they been similarly misled?

Mayor Adams: Yes, they have been. It's really unfortunate when you watch government misrepresent where you're sending people. In some cases, we had those who were COVID positive on the buses with individuals who were dehydrated, didn't have proper food. Some were even tagged like you would tag an animal. It's really unfortunate that a country that is known for humanitarian actions, this is a blight on our entire country. But again, it falls in line with some of the inhumane and some of the changes that you're seeing and some of the basic laws of women's rights to choose and gun reform in this country coming from particular locations like DeSantis and Abbott. When one wants to travel to another location and they're forced to go to New York City, these are the things that we have witnessed based on our preliminary interviews and conversation with those migrant seekers and asylum seekers.

Tapper: Just over a year ago you tweeted, "New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration." What is your message to migrants arriving in the US? Should they still come to New York City?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that they should come to any place in the country that they desire in their pursuit of the American dream. You know, I say it all the time, this is the only country where dream is attached to its name. People want to come here and pursue that dream like our ancestors did so many years ago. All of us, we all have come from somewhere, and we should keep that in mind when we think about these new arrivals now, but we should do it in a coordinated method. We should make sure that those who are here are not breaking any laws and we should make sure that we treat people with the humanitarian ways that we are used to treating people in this country.

Tapper: All right. New York Mayor Eric Adams, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today, sir. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

###