New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said on Thursday that he hopes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will see how the city has managed the migrant crisis, during his trip to the Big Apple by offering the Republican governor a complimentary stay at a migrant shelter.
Adams' comments came shortly before Abbott, who has bussed thousands of migrants to New York City over the last few years, will headline the New York Republican Party's annual gala Thursday evening.
"I'm going to offer him a stay in one of the HERRCs so he can see what he has created and understand how we are treating people with the dignity and respect that he should have shown as well," Adams said at a press conference when asked about Abbott's trip to the city.
"HERRCs," as used by Adams, refers to New York City's humanitarian emergency response and relief centers, which have served as temporary housing facilities for migrants who arrive in the city.
"I'm not quite sure why he's here and what he's doing while here, but he's going to see how you can manage the crisis with the coordination of not one child of families sleeping on the streets of the city of New York," Adams added. "When we coordinate together, we should not displace problems to local municipalities. That is not what executives do. It is unfortunate that he made the decision to do that."
The comments from Adams, who has repeatedly blasted Abbott for not coordinating with the city on matters of illegal immigration, came after the city began giving out prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrants residing in the Big Apple last week. The prepaid cards are meant to be for the purchasing of food and baby supplies and may only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores.
The effort is part of a reported $53 million pilot program to hand out prepaid cards to migrant families housed in hotels, despite public outcry. The program, which the mayor's office confirmed to Fox News Digital will provide migrant families of four with two children under five with up to $350 each week until the end of their 28-day stay, began with a limited number of families last week and is expected to expand.
Roughly 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022, overwhelming city resources as officials have struggled to find housing for them.
Abbott has bused asylum-seekers to New York and other cities in an effort to assist them in traveling to sanctuary jurisdictions and also highlight the crisis that border communities face on a daily basis.
New York City's government has projected that it will spend at least $10.6 billion on migrants by summer 2025. New York state has already vowed to contribute about $2 billion in the current budget cycle to the migrant crisis, but Adams told lawmakers that the state pledge would only cover one-third of the city’s migrant costs.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, another Democrat, has suggested the state earmark $2.4 billion to go toward migrant services in the next budget cycle, but the details have not been ironed out before the state legislature. Adams' office said even that allocation proposed by Hochul would be $600 million short of what the city needs in its next budget cycle, the New York Daily News reported in February.
Though Adams hopes the Texas Republican will see how NYC has handled the migrant crisis, Abbott is no stranger to mitigating the very same crisis along the southern border.
According to Fox News analysis published in February, nearly 7.3 million migrants are known to have illegally crossed the southwest border since President Biden took office in January 2021.
That number, which came from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is likely to have increased significantly over the past two months, is greater than the populations of 36 individual states.
If the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal 2024 will break last year's record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters — a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state.
Abbott will serve as the keynote speaker at the Thursday evening GOP fundraiser in Manhattan.
Fox News' Greg Wehner, Bill Melugin and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
