STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — Mayor Eric Adams once again ripped the federal government on Thursday for criticizing his handling of the migrant crisis, and he warned New Yorkers about steep cuts to service that may be coming.
Adams made the comments on Staten Island where a lawsuit may soon strip him of certain emergency powers his administration been using to handle the influx of more than 113,000 people.
“It’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a lot,” Adams said of the 15% budget cuts he ordered his agencies to prepare.
On Wednesday, federal officials promised more money, more housing resources and more immigration officials to help the city.
However, the mayor abruptly ended his press conference after ripping into concerns the White House has raised about how he is handling crisis on a day-to-day basis.
“This crisis that was created [by the federal government]. We’re now looking at the individuals trying to fix the crisis and saying you’re not doing a good enough job,” Adams said.
However, it’s not just the federal government that has been critical of the mayor’s efforts.
Staten Island residents and lawmakers were in court Thursday pushing back against the opening of a shelter at the former Saint John Villa Academy. They are arguing the Adams administration is misinterpreting the “right to shelter” rules and never had the emergency power to open up migrant shelters in the first place.
“This might be about one shelter in one neighborhood with some loud neighbors, but it really is for all the neighbors of the 206 migrant homeless shelters that are now occupying each and every corner of this city,” Republican Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli said.
The judge in the case is expected to issue a ruling on the shelter, and more importantly the mayors emergency migrant powers, in the next coming days.
