‘State of emergency’: Adams says NYC migrant influx to cost city $1B

“There was never an agreement for El Paso to send asylum seekers here,” Adams said.

“We never told them, ‘Please send us your asylum seekers.’ We would never do that. We have our own issue here.”

Adams’ remarks came a day after The Post reported that the 7,330 migrants bused from El Paso since Aug. 23 accounted for more than 42% of the estimated 17,400 who’ve surged into the city since May.

At one point during his Q&A session, the mayor appeared to come closer than ever to blaming Biden for the crisis engulfing the city, as Adams’ critics have done and demanded of him.

“I think the issue is to do a decompression strategy from the national government to make sure that we could, we can ensure that these asylum seekers are spread throughout the entire country,” Adams said.

“We all should be part of resolving this issue.”

But when asked if that meant stemming the flow across the southern border, Adams said, “No.”This is going to take a national coordination, and it should be handled at the border and ensure when people come in, No. 1, they should be allowed to go to the destinations that they desire,” he said.

“And not just incentivized to go to New York, Washington or Chicago, as it currently is being put in place, and then we should ensure that the entire country absorbs this influx of asylum seekers so that we’re not leaning on three cities in the northern part of the country. That is the role of the national government.”

New York has been a “sanctuary city” since 1989, when then-Mayor Ed Koch signed an executive order barring municipal workers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities unless required by law or in connection with criminal investigations.

That directive was later broadened by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to make illegal immigrants eligible for benefits including emergency shelter, medical care and food.

Adams declared his support for those policies during last year’s mayoral race, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has cited them, as well as the city’s 1981 “right to shelter” decree, for his decision to send migrants here.

The city has struggled for weeks to find space for the incoming thousands, most of whom are Venezuelans seeking asylum from that country’s brutal dictatorship and economic collapse.

In a tweet Friday, Abbott said, “Sanctuary cities like New York City experience a FRACTION of what Texas border communities face every day.

https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1578422776159166464

“We’ll continue busing migrants to NYC, DC, & Chicago to relieve our overwhelmed border towns until Biden does his job to secure the border,” he vowed.

Under his state of emergency, Adams suspended city zoning laws to allow the opening of his planned tent city for migrants on Randall’s Island and any others to follow.

In addition, the order put Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom in charge of the operation and ordered the Office of Emergency Management and the city’s public hospital system to run the facility.

It’s set to temporarily house up to 500 migrants and serve as an intake and processing center before they’re given housing and set up with social services or sent to another destination.

During his speech, Adams offered up a litany of alarming statistics to justify the move:

• More than 61,000 people are now in city shelters, a near-record that he said would be shattered “once the asylum-seekers from today’s buses” enter the system and would likely reach 100,000 next year
• Officials are renting rooms in more than 40 hotels across the city for emergency shelter space
• More than 5,500 migrant kids have been enrolled in city public schools

The mayor — who’s asked the White House for $500 million in emergency aid — called on Congress to shorten the mandatory six-month waiting period for migrants to obtain work permits after filing for asylum.