New York City Mayor Eric Adams doubled down on his accusation that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is targeting “Black mayors” with buses full of migrants Tuesday.
Adams initially accused Abbott of targeting “Black-run cities” on Monday, suggesting a racial animus behind the policy. He now denies that he ever called Abbott’s policy “racist,” but suggests Americans should “look at the facts.”
“Let’s be clear … I never used the term racist. That was a little creative journalism that was used,” Adams said Tuesday. “But let’s look at the facts. 108,000 cities in New York. One-hundred and eight thousand. Governor Abbott sent asylum seekers to New York – Black mayor; to Washington – Black mayor; to Houston – Black mayor; to Los Angeles – Black mayor; to Denver – Black mayor. He passed over thousands of cities to land here.”
Abbott’s office was quick to strike back against Adams’ assertion, saying the migrants chose for themselves which city to travel to after being processed through the federal immigration system.
“Mayor Adams is once again spreading falsehoods and outright lies. He knows full well these migrants willingly chose to go to New York City, since his staff saw firsthand on their secret trip to Texas last year as migrants raised their hands to go on buses to his sanctuary city,” Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, said in a statement.
“Mayor Adams, along with Mayor Bowser, Mayor Lightfoot, and Mayor Kenney, were proud to tout their self-declared sanctuary city status until Texas began busing migrants to New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Philadelphia to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities,” he added.
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS ‘MIGRANT CRISIS’ UNDER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HAS ‘DESTROYED’ CITY
Abbott has long argued that his bussing program exists as a means to force Democratic leaders in New York, Washington and elsewhere to confront the realities of the border crisis, where border officers encounter hundreds of thousands of migrants each month.
Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also pleaded with Abbott to halt the bussing program on Monday, despite her own proud declarations of Chicago’s sanctuary city status in the past.
“Nearly all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water, and clothing and many needed extensive medical care,” she wrote. “Some of the individuals you placed on buses were women in active labor, and some were victims of sexual assault. None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country like freight without regard to their personal circumstances.”
Abbott has consistently argued that federal processes place the same migrants into small Texas towns with even fewer resources to care for them, a reality that led to the bussing program.