NEW YORK — Everything’s bigger in Texas — including the humanitarian crisis of helping migrants.
That was the message from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as he spoke Wednesday in Manhattan, where leaders have blasted his continued efforts to ship migrants from the southern border to blue states, particularly the biggest of them all: New York City.
Abbott both defended his program bussing migrants from the border to sanctuary cities like New York and trivialized Mayor Eric Adams’ complaints about the strain it has put on the city's resources.
“What's going on in New York right now might not be the common circumstance or what you were looking for,” Abbott said at a breakfast hosted by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “But what is going on in New York is calm and organized compared to the real chaos of what we see on the border — not every day, but every hour of every day.”
The Adams administration says nearly 120,000 migrants have come to the city since last summer, many of them without shelter, jobs and support systems. More than 60,000 are currently in the city’s care through a network of shelters in hotels, tents and office buildings.
Adams has blamed Abbott as a catalyst for the recent increase in asylum-seekers coming to the city. Earlier this month, the mayor called him “a madman.” So City Hall saw Abbott’s first visit to the city in years as an insult.
“New Yorkers deserve better than being trapped between a vicious game of political hot potato,” a spokesperson for Adams said. “When thousands of asylum-seekers arrived at Governor Abbott's doorstep in pursuit of the American Dream, he chose to use them as political pawns.”
Abbott, a Republican, put the blame on President Joe Biden, saying that Texas has bussed just 15,800 migrants to New York. That’s a fraction of the migrants who have come to the city through either private transportation or supported by nonprofit organizations. Abbott added that the buses were necessary to relieve overwhelmed small border towns.
The Adams administration has also bussed migrants to hotels in other parts of New York and has lobbied Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the city with more money and resources, along with policies to allow the city more flexibility on where to house them.
In fact, Abbott never directly attacked Adams during the nearly one-hour program, and he was eager at times to note their points of agreement — something that Republicans have done regularly with Adams, who has sparred with the White House over the issue.
“This is something that's unsustainable. I think those are the words of your mayor. Those are the words of the mayor of Chicago and LA. Those are the words of the governor of Texas,” he said.
Abbott echoed New York leaders in saying that the federal government should pay Texas and New York for serving migrants and teased that “you may be able to expect some litigation” on that issue coming soon.
Asked what advice he’d give Adams and Hochul, he said it’s something they’re already beginning to follow: blaming Biden for not limiting migration to the country.
“They must prevail upon their president for more than just money. They need a change in policy,” he said. “They need to demand what all Americans expect and that is the Biden administration will follow the rule of law and stop illegal immigration into the United States.”
The White House has put the onus on Congress to change immigration laws, and it points to the help it has given New York and other states.
Hochul, meanwhile, was unswayed by Abbott’s visit to New York.
“Let me be clear. I will not be taking advice from Greg Abbott,” she told reporters at an unrelated press conference Wednesday.
“This is just pure politics what he is talking about. And if he’s genuine about solving the problem, don’t come to New York and grandstand. Go to Washington and meet with Speaker (Kevin) McCarthy and say you have the key in your hands to solving this problem.”
Abbott isn’t expected to meet with either Hochul or Adams while in New York. He appeared in studio on Fox News Wednesday morning — where he also encouraged New York to “blame Joe Biden” — and met with billionaire donor John Catsimatidis, taping a prerecorded segment for Catsimatidis' radio show.
Abbott adviser Dave Carney said Abbott would be in New York until Friday, including visits to the New York Stock Exchange and attending a celebration for an exchange traded fund of Texas companies.
Where Abbott spoke was also notable. It was at the Yale Club in Midtown Manhattan, which is next door to the Roosevelt Hotel that the city has turned into its main migrant intake center.
The governor didn’t appear to visit and drove away after the event. But one Adams’ deputy mayor leading the migrant response, Anne Wiliams-Isom, suggested Abbott could learn from the way the city has provided shelter and services.
“I hope that when he’s here, he can get a glimpse of what it really looks like to deal with a humanitarian crisis in a humane way,” she said.
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