New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) visited Mexico’s Puebla state Thursday, where he attempted to balance the migrant-friendly stance New York is known for with the struggles the city is facing amid an influx of asylum-seekers.
Adams focused on the ties binding his city and the Mexican state that has sent some 800,000 of its people to New York over the years, The Associated Press reported. Inside the legislative chamber, Gov. Sergio Salomón Céspedes declared Adams the “Mayor of Puebla York.”
“We are neighbors. We are familia. Mi casa es su casa. Your struggles are my struggles,” Adams reportedly said shortly after.
Adams returned to his original stance when talking to reporters, saying the city is “at capacity.”
“There is no more room in New York. Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not,” he said. “We don’t want to put people in congregate shelters. We don’t want people to think they will be employed.”
Adams has called upon the White House to seek federal assistance to house asylum-seekers but has been denied additional funding. The city has already received about $140 million in federal funding for shelters, more than any other city along the southwest border has received.
National Guard members have been deployed to New York City to help with case management. The White House announced earlier this month that individuals from Venezuela, the largest demographic of migrants coming to the city, are eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status if they have been in the U.S. on or before July 31.
Adams’ office said that more than 110,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the city since spring 2022. Adams said last month that the crisis will “destroy New York City.”
After attending speeches from Puebla’s governor and city mayor, Adams spoke to the media and said the migrants arriving in New York deserve better than what the city is able to give them “because of the magnitude of this problem, and the costs associated with it, and of the navigation of this crisis.”
The AP reported that Adams began a four-day tour of Latin America on Wednesday with plans to travel to Quito, Ecuador, and Bogotá, Colombia, before visiting the Darién Gap, a dangerous area between Panama and Colombia that many migrants pass through traveling northward toward the U.S.