Mayor Eric Adams held his weekly in-person press conference on Monday morning, addressing the migrant crisis, pro-Palestine protests, and controversy surrounding his 2009 book.
The press conference was held one day early so that Adams could attend Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address today in Albany.
Adams staunchly defended the city's migrant policy, where the 60-day shelter limit for families starts today. He insisted that the city has done everything in their power to humanely tackle the migrant crisis and ensure that families are not displaced.
There are approximately 40 families at the Row Hotel in Midtown who will be affected by the limit today. If families do not have a place to live, they will have to return to the city’s arrival center at the Roosevelt Hotel. Immigration advocates have spoken out against the 60-day rule, warning that families may end up sleeping on the street.
“I think that anyone who believes that this administration will create an environment where children and families will sleep on the street, they were not hearing our message over and over again,” said Adams. “The problem is as fast as we're able to stabilize families that come into our front door.”
Adams said that the federal government must intervene to slow the influx of asylum seekers.
“What needs to be done is we need a resolution at the border, and our national leaders must come up with that resolution,” he said.
Two recent incidents of violence at migrant shelters were also addressed, including a stabbing death on Randall’s Island on Saturday. The mayor said that metal detectors and cameras will be installed at sites to combat crime.
Regarding the the large spread pro-Palestine protests that took place on Monday, where more than 300 demonstrators were arrested across the city after blocking traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, as well as the Holland Tunnel, Adams said he supported the right to protest, but also stressed the importance of condemning Hamas.
“The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city," the mayor said. "Some people are not just driving to and from crossing our bridges to go to their place of employment, some of them are dealing with some real emergency‑type issues."
In addition, one reporter raised concerns about the validity of a story in Adams' 2009 book “Don’t Let It Happen.” In the book, Adams claimed he accidentally fired a gun at school as a kid. But at the press conference, Adams denied that the incident ever happened.
“The coauthor of the book may have misunderstood,” Adams said, even though there isn't a co-author listed on the book cover. “That book never got into print because we never went through the proofreading aspect of it."
Despite his claim, the book was published through a self-publishing company and is currently available for sale on Amazon.
