NYC Mayor Says Migrant Crisis Began with ‘Madman Down in Texas’ Busing Program

New York City Mayor Eric Adams shifted the blame on his expanding migrant crisis to a “madman down in Texas.” The mayor referred to the migrant busing program Texas Governor Greg Abbott created under his Operation Lone Star border security mission.

The mayor bragged about the city’s comeback, which he says has been derailed by the migrant crisis facing the sanctuary city of New York. “And then what happened?” Adams asked. “It started with a madman down in Texas [who] decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City.” The mayor commented during a September 6 town hall meeting.

“A hundred ten thousand migrants left to feed, clothe, house, educate the children, wash their laundry sheets — everything they need,” Adams stated. The mayor went on to say he sees no end to the crisis and that it will destroy New York City, Breitbart News reported.

The mayor said nothing of his campaign pledges to continue New York City as a sanctuary city. Nor did he mention that the number of migrants bused from Texas is a tiny fraction of the migrants shipped to the Big Apple by the federal government. As of September 5, the State of Texas bused only 13,300 migrants to New York City, Governor Abbott tweeted on Tuesday.

Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, responded to the mayor’s personal attack on the governor of Texas.

“The hypocrisy of Mayor Adams is astounding,” Mahaleris said in response to an inquiry from Breitbart Texas. “Mayor Adams was proud to tout his self-described sanctuary city status until Texas began busing migrants to New York City to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities.”

“With millions of residents, New York is only dealing with a fraction of what our small border communities deal with on a day-to-day basis,” the governor’s press secretary added. “Instead of complaining about 13,000 migrants sent from Texas, Mayor Adams should be calling out his party leader, President Biden, who has been flying planeloads of migrants all around the country and oftentimes in the cover of night, straining state and local resources across the country. Until President Biden steps up and does his job, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities to provide relief to our overwhelmed border towns.” (Link included in the original statement.)

Adams expressed his frustration with the ever-mounting crisis his city faces because of the intentional changes in immigration and border security policies made by the Biden administration. He did not, however, place the blame on Biden or his policies.

“Let me tell you something New Yorkers: Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City, destroy New York City. We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month,” Adams expressed.

He continued, saying:

One time we were just getting Venezuela, now we’re getting Ecuador, now we’re getting Russian-speaking coming through Mexico, now we’re getting Western Africa, now we’re getting people from all over the globe have made their minds up that they’re going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City.

And everyone is saying, ‘It’s New York City’s problem.’ Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut every service in this city is going to be impacted. All of us.

Adams’s problems may worsen as Border Patrol reports rapidly expanding numbers of migrants crossing from what they describe as “Special Interest Nations,” Breitbart Texas’s Randy Clark reported on the same day Adams conducted his town all. As an example, CBP reports reviewed by Breitbart showed an increase of migrants from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania from 288 during the first ten months of FY22 to nearly 14,000 so far this fiscal year — an increase of more than 6,000 percent. Egyptian migrants also increased by more than 1,400 percent during this period.

“As of August, more than 5,000 Afghan nationals have been arrested by the Border Patrol along the southwest border,” Clark reported. “During the same time frame in 2022, less than 600 Afghan nationals were encountered by the Border Patrol.”

“With thousands of migrants crossing daily, we don’t have time to figure out who these people are, where they are going, or what their intentions for coming into the country are with any degree of accuracy; most are out the door in a few days,” a source within CBP told Breitbart.

“According to the Border Patrol agents who spoke to Breitbart Texas, most of the group will be released to pursue asylum claims within the United States once the arduous task of processing the migrants is completed,” Clark concluded.

Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.