Eric Adams praises Trump for securing US border, dishes on Biden meetings about migrant crisis: ‘Everything was out of control'

New York Post

7 days ago

Mayor Eric Adams praised President Trump for solving the border crisis that spiraled 'out of control' under predecessor Joe Biden and left the city scrambling to shelter and care for tens of thousands of migrants.
'The Trump administration secured the border, and because of that, you're not seeing the thousands of people coming in, and it has been a real relief for our city,' Adams told The Post's Miranda Devine on the latest episode of 'Pod Force One.'
Adams claimed the Biden administration's failure to secure the southern border cost New York taxpayers $7.7 billion over a three-year period — a huge chunk of the city's discretionary spending — and squeezed out funding for other pressing needs.
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6 Mayor Adams praised President Trump for securing the border during an interview with The Post's Miranda Devine.
Tamara Beckwith
'Seven billion of that went to the crisis. That just was not sustainable. I tried my best to explain to DC over and over again and they just didn't hear it,' he said on the podcast.
The mayor, a Democrat who is seeking re-election as an independent, said the situation led to tensions with Biden and his White House team because they refused to take the issue seriously as Adams repeatedly appealed for help.
Adams met personally with Biden and repeatedly with his top aides, though he said he had a 'senior moment' and couldn't remember who on the then-president's team. One of them was Tom Perez, a top Biden aide.
'His team probably told him that everything was under control, when, in fact, everything was not under control. Everything was out of control,' Adams told Devine.
The mayor described how he and Gov. Kathy Hochul personally conveyed to Biden in a meeting that the influx of migrants was a 5-alarm crisis upending the Big Apple.
6 A line of migrants boarding a bus to New York City in Eagle Pass, Texas on Sept. 22, 2023.
James Keivom
Adams admitted there were violent 'gang members' who slipped into the city among the migrants, saying they were mixed in with families and children at the Roosevelt Hotel, the since-closed massive intake center and shelter in Manhattan.
'Governor Hochul and I sat down and spoke with the president and shared with him that his people are not giving him real information, that the flow had to stop and it just never did,' he said.
'It just got worse as time went on until we saw the securing of the border.'
Full Episode
Adams claimed the corruption investigation and indictment of him brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors when Biden was in office was triggered by his criticism of the administration's handling of the border crisis.
'Do I believe the order came directly from President Biden? I don't have any proof of that,' he said.
But Adams added 'yes I do believe' Biden's subordinates 'put the order out' to prosecute him.
6 Adams said the Trump administration's border policies have been a 'relief' to New York City.
AFP via Getty Images
6 Migrants waiting in line outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan on Feb. 25, 2025.
Michael Nagle
Biden's team and prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan have denied any link.
A federal judge dismissed the case after the Trump Justice Department said it would not prosecute it.
Adams has insisted there was no quid pro quo deal for him to do Trump's bidding on immigration enforcement to have the case dropped.
He told Devine that he only bumped into the then-candidate once last year during the Archdiocese of New York's Al Smith fundraising dinner — and Trump told the mayor he had been unfairly prosecuted.
Since Trump took office, Adams said: 'We're now down to less than 100 migrant asylum seekers coming into our city a week, and that's due to this securing of the border.'
6 Adams claimed that the border crisis cost the city $7.7 billion over a three-year period.
Hizzoner defended US Immigration and Customs Enforcement leading Trump's crackdown.
'We have to stop classifying ICE as an illegal operation. They're not. They are a federal governmental law enforcement entity, and we will coordinate with them when we go after illegal, dangerous people, and we have done that,' Adams said.
More than 237,000 migrants were served by the city since 2022 — at a peak of 4,000 per week — and some 100 hotels were converted into emergency shelters to house the new arrivals.
'You could do the math to see how challenging this was,' Adams said.
6 Adams said he believes people in the Biden administation 'put the order out' to prosecute him.
Tamara Beckwith
Adams praised his administration and city government officials for handling the migrant crisis after spending countless hours helping guiding New Yorkers through the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
'We had to build an entire shelter system within months … educate 50,000 children, make sure we had to feed, clothe and house,' he said.
Adams said he bore the brunt of the criticism for dealing with an unrelenting wave of migrants entering the city that he had little control over, given New York's existing sanctuary and right to shelter laws, or the authority to provide migrants with jobs who lack federal legal status.
The city couldn't stop the buses of migrants from coming in, he noted.
'This was an unbelievable achievement that the team was able to accomplish, and I really am pleased by the leaders of this administration who did it,' Adams said.