A group of New York City Democrats blasted the Biden administration for failing to provide adequate support in handling the migrant crisis that has overwhelmed the city.
The politicians rallied outside City Hall, demanding more help from the federal government, the New York Post reported.
"Our city needs help from the White House," said rally organizer and Democratic state assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, a close ally of New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.). Democratic city councilman Robert Holden declared that President Joe Biden is "asleep at the wheel" in his handling of the crisis.
The rally comes as the city has struggled to house massive numbers of illegal migrants from the southern border and from Africa. Dozens of migrants were forced to sleep on the sidewalks outside the Roosevelt Hotel due to lack of shelter capacity.
Adams and other city officials have asked the federal government for aid in sheltering the nearly 100,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since 2022. The federal government so far has only agreed to provide $143 million, a fraction of the estimated $4.3 billion that Adams's budget office has estimated the crisis will cost the city, according to the Post.
The mayor has said that Biden's offer to provide only a single liaison between the city and the Department of Homeland Security is not enough.
"We need to allow people to work. There’s nothing more anti-American than you can't work! We need to control the border," Adams told reporters Monday.