In April, New York City mayor Eric Adams's (D.) administration launched a campaign to celebrate immigrants. Now, Adams says unrestrained immigration "will destroy New York City."
Immigrants "contributed to our city's cultural richness and economic prosperity," Adams said as he announced the launch of the "We Love Immigrant New York" campaign.
The mayor appears to have reversed that position, however, as hundreds of thousands of migrants this year poured across the southern border. Despite the Biden administration's claims to the contrary, the surge has continued after President Joe Biden allowed the border security measure Title 42 to lapse, with the largest number of migrants going to New York.
"This issue will destroy New York City," Adams thundered on Wednesday. "We're getting 10,000 migrants a month."
"Every community in this city is going to be impacted," the mayor warned. "We're going to have to cut every service. … The city we knew, we're about to lose."
Adams's Wednesday remarks show a dramatic change from the lax border policies that he long supported.
In October 2021, when Adams was running for office, he declared that "New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration." His predecessor, Bill de Blasio (D.), in 2017 reaffirmed New York's sanctuary status when then-president Donald Trump halted funding to sanctuary cities.
Under Biden, who revoked Trump's order, illegal border crossings have shattered records. In last year alone, the United States saw more than 2.76 million illegal crossings.