While President Joe Biden and Mayor Eric Adams are hardly political pals, the president’s new executive order is being met with hope by the mayor.

“Whatever could be done to slow the flow, give us the resources, allow people to work. I’m all for [it],” Adams said at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday. 

Mayor Adams has been to Washington D.C., nearly a dozen times to plead for help from the White House in dealing with the migrant crisis. Part of those trips has been a call for a decompression strategy at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Eric Adams and city officials welcomed President Joe Biden’s new executive order on asylum seekers on Tuesday

  • One city official said the order brings hope at potentially bringing some relief to cities that have been dealing with an influx for the past two years

  • As of Tuesday, more than 200,000 asylum seekers have come to New York, with more than 65,000 in the city’s care

City officials gave the mayor credit for Biden’s executive order, tying it to Adams’ pleas for help. 

“Mayor Adams has led the charge nationally to ask the Biden administration to deliver more resources and help to New York City and other cities struggling with this crisis,” Tiffany Raspberry, director of Intergovernmental Affairs, said. “We believe today is a direct result of his efforts.” 

Since the spring of 2022, more than 200,000 asylum seekers have come to the city. The influx has put a strain on city resources, including the city’s budget and shelter system. 

The city has spent more than $1 billion feeding and housing the new arrivals. While the federal government has provided $156 million in funding.

“In addition, it would be great if he would give us some financial resources. We still need the money. We still have to appeal to the federal government to give us the money because this is still on our dime and we cannot sustain,” Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief advisor to the mayor, said.

Pro-immigrant groups are calling the order “reckless,” and “a political stunt.” They went on to call on Biden and Congress to “provide real proposals that invest in safe and legal immigration pathways.”  

The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday promised to challenge the order in court. 

Biden officially announced the new border policy a day after two New York City police officers were allegedly shot and wounded by a Venezuelan migrant.

Gov. Kathy Hochul was present at Tuesday‘s announcement by the president, but not Adams.

When he was asked at his weekly press briefing at City Hall about the invitation, Adams responded that he’s a busy man.

“To the invite to the event, people should be asking, ‘did [Mayor] Eric [Adams] invite you to his events?’ I have too much to do to worry about what guest list I’m not on. My day is non-stop. I enjoy going to the events in New York, and I do not have to raise my hand and say, ‘please invite me somewhere,’” Adams said.  

City officials are hoping with the new executive order in place, the influx of migrants will slow down. 

“I’m hopeful that what this will look like we’ll go back to the good old days when we just had a couple of people coming into the DHS system,"  Deputy Mayor of Health & Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said.

“We now have more asylum seekers, over 65,000 than we do traditional New Yorkers in our DHS system. That’s bananas,” she added.

In the last week, 1,200 migrants arrived in the city.