New York City's mayor nixed a planned Sunday trip to the U.S.-Mexico border over security concerns.
Mayor Eric Adams was slated to depart Saturday night to visit Brownsville and McAllen, Texas. The Democrat was expected to meet with U.S. immigration leaders as his city struggles to house new migrants seeking asylum.
But Adams' office said the U.S. State Department flagged safety concerns that prompted him to cancel the trip. Spokespersons for the mayor didn't respond to a message seeking comment Sunday but told WABC-TV that federal officials raised concerns about a city in Mexico that Adams planned to visit.
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Adams said Friday he planned to meet on with immigration leaders who “all applaud what we have done” and want to “rally around us and have other municipalities come and see what we're doing to duplicate what we're doing.”
The former New York Police Department officer, in a visit to El Paso, Texas in January, offered up a blistering criticism of the federal government's response to the increase of immigrants into U.S. cities far from the border.
Adams also took a four-day tour through Latin America in October in which he made stops in Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia. He implored people to stop making the dangerous journey to the U.S. and said New York is "at capacity.”
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More than 180,000 migrants have come to New York City since the spring of 2022, according to the mayor's office. More than 64,000 are in the city's care through its more than 200 emergency shelter sites.
Last week, city officials and human rights advocates reached an agreement on Adams' bid to suspend the city's “ right to shelter ” policy.
The agreement essentially ends the city's blanket requirement to provide shelter for adult immigrants without any time limits. Now, officials can decide whether to allow a migrant to stay in a shelter beyond 30 days on a case-by-case basis.
Additional time will be granted if a person shows “significant efforts to resettle,” which can include making an appointment with an immigration lawyer, applying for a resettlement program or proof that they're searching for housing.
