On Sunday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams once more declined Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s request to personally visit the southern border.
The former law enforcement official and Democrat claimed on ABC News’ This Week that Abbott’s practice of busing asylum seekers to New York and other sanctuary cities was a “political ploy” and that he did not need to be present at the US-Mexico border to be aware of the problem.
Adams also attributed the present migrant situation to the Texas Republican, despite the fact that since President Joe Biden took office, tens of thousands of people have been crossing the border.
He asserted that his staff contacted Abbott once they learned about the initial buses and accused Abbott of deliberately ignoring an invitation to collaborate.
The mayor declared that “we don’t have to stand up on the border to indicate that the problem he created is a real issue.”
“It’s time for him to act like the chief executive that he is and communicate with every city and state the buses travel through so that we can properly coordinate as the leaders of these large municipalities,” the speaker said.
He also refuted Republican criticisms of hypocrisy over the lack of outrage over the El Paso mayor’s decision to bus migrants, pointing out that the mayor had worked with the locations where he was sending buses, whereas Abbott was accused of sending them up without even water.
As you witnessed, the mayor of El Paso said that having sponsors makes the transition simpler. We have sizable Venezuelan communities in America, so let’s locate the sponsors, if we had properly worked with the governors of these Southern states, Adams stated.
In contrast to realizing that these are people, families, and human beings, “there was no coordination at all with Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis.”
Adams responded when asked if he had any communication with Governor Abbott at the time he was transporting people up north: “We reached out to Governor Abbott when we first discovered that he was compelling people to get on the bus, he was tagging them.” They were being transported for 45 hours without adequate food, drink, or medical attention.
He claimed Abbott even rejected attempts to work with him in the future.
We’ve reached out and said that; now let’s cooperate and collaborate so that we can address this situation as a group. Adams remarked, “They refused to do it.
‘Excuse me, are you saying that they wouldn’t even accept – they wouldn’t even take your call?’ host Jon Karl questioned in shock.
No, they did the exact opposite, according to Adams.
They accepted the call and said they would coordinate—I’m referring to Governor Abbott—but they made no attempt to do so because, in my opinion, it would not have been politically advantageous for them to do so. It was primarily to engage in the current political gamesmanship that you observe.
Abbott wrote a letter early last month inviting Adams and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to witness the “humanitarian and security disaster” firsthand. Abbott had already started relocating migrants to both of their cities.
Fabian Levy, Adams’ press secretary, had denounced the action at the time in a statement to DailyMail.com.
On August 1, Levy stated, “We hope Governor Abbott would spend his energy and resources on providing help and services to asylum seekers in Texas instead of a photo-op at the border, as we have been hard at work doing in New York City.”
Adams did, however, ultimately decide to deploy a task group for “fact-finding” to tour the border early this month.