The chief advisor for New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on the federal government to “close the borders” Sunday – a remark that led to an outcry from liberal pols and a quick clarification from another high-ranking City Hall official.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin made the comments during an interview on PIX 11 Sunday morning when asked about the city’s attempt to change the right-to-shelter policy in place as the Big Apple strains to care for tens of thousands of migrants.
“The federal government needs to do its job,” she said on the television station. “We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate, and the president to do its job: Close the borders.
“And until you close the borders, you need to come up with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them throughout our 50 states.”
Hours after Lewis-Martin’s interview, Deputy Mayor for Communications, Fabien Levy, insisted the Adams administration believes the country should continue to welcome immigrants while also wanting a “decompression strategy at the border.”
“To be very clear, and as @NYCMayor has said over and over again, of course this nation should continue to welcome immigrants — both those seeking asylum and those who are not,” Levy said in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter.
“The U.S. will always do its part to be a country that takes in those seeking refuge from war, discrimination, & strife, but as we’ve stated repeatedly, we need a real decompression strategy at the border so that all communities across the U.S. can do their part in providing the compassion & care NYC has provided to more than 118,000 asylum seekers since last year.”
While the city has welcomed more than 100,000 migrants since last year, Lewis-Martin said the city is currently caring for more than 61,000 migrants.
Some liberal City Council members blasted Lewis-Martin’s border statement.
“These xenophobic Republican talking points have no home in our City,” Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif tweeted. “New York has been a welcoming beacon to immigrants for centuries and will always be one, no matter what this administration says.”
“Close the border.” – Donald Tr… wait, no, the Adams Administration,” Council Member Tiffany Caban, who represents part of Queens, tweeted.
But other elected officials voiced support for the statement.
“The Chief Advisor is spot on: No sensible nation would let just anyone cross its borders unchecked,” Council Member Robert Holden, a moderate Queens Democrat, tweeted. “We must secure our borders & implement a screening process for credible fear, in line with the Refugee Act and UN protocols.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also raised eyebrows Sunday when she said the southern border was “too open” in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We want them to have a limit on who can come across the border. It is too open right now,” Hochul said.
“People coming from all over the world are finding their way through simply saying they need asylum and the majority of them seem to be ending up in the streets of New York.”
She added that “it’s in our DNA to welcome immigrants, but there has to be some limits in place and Congress has to put more controls at the border.”
New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis seized on the statements from Lewis-Martin and Hochul.
“I hope @SenSchumer and @SenGillibrand are listening because they are the only ones standing in the way of securing our border and ending this crisis,” she wrote on X.