EL PASO, TEXAS — Migrants in El Paso, Texas urged Mayor Eric Adams to take them back to the Big Apple with him Sunday — because, some said, they heard New York City can help them more than anywhere else.
Adams was greeted by a crowd of curious onlookers during one of the stops on his weekend tour of El Paso, a center of the migrant crisis that has overwhelmed his own city.
“I heard that they can help me in New York more than elsewhere. I heard the shelters are great there,” said Venezuelan native Kailey Marquez, one of the migrants gathered outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church shelter during Adams’ visit.
Some told The Post they wanted Adams to “take me with you” to New York when asked what their message would be for the visiting mayor.
Adams and his Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro spoke to the asylum seekers after touring the church, which had opened its doors to migrants last month as the border was overrun by those anticipating the expiration of the pandemic emergency expulsion measure Title 42.
One man who told Adams he had first heard about New York City by watching television elicited a cheerful laugh from the mayor, who spoke to migrants as Castro translated.
The mayor received a warm welcome from a group of dozens, who raised their hands and burst into applause after he asked them if they had come to the US to “work and experience the American Dream.”
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Some migrants told The Post they were confused about why Adams was touring the border city, while others said they had wondered if President Biden had returned to El Paso after his visit last Sunday due to the mayor’s six-car motorcade and large security detail.
“I hope his visit has the purpose of helping us because we just want to get ahead in life,” said Marquez, who began her journey to the US with her husband and two children while pregnant.
Marquez said she had given birth in the US to a child who is now a 20-day-old citizen, and her oldest kids are now aged 6 and 2.
“I came here to work and have a better quality of life,” she said, while stating her desire to go to New York.
Two other migrants outside the church-turned-shelter, both from Venezuela, told The Post they wanted to reach New York, with one of them pointing out its status as a sanctuary city.
“I would like to go to sanctuary,” said Elvis Mendoza, one of the dozens gathered to see what Adams could do to help them.
When asked what kind of help he wanted from the mayor, Mendoza replied, “That he take me to New York.”
Another man specifically said he wanted to go to Queens, though did not explain why that was his preferred borough.
“I want a work permit so I can make a living. That’s why we came here,” said Hernesto Villafranca. “I just need a permit so I can go there and complete my reason for coming here.”
Adams toured the at-capacity shelter — which is filled with mostly unauthorized Venezuelan migrants and surrounded by people sleeping on the streets — with El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and Ruben Garcia of Annunciation House, a network of shelters that have been around for 30 years.
The mayor was greeted Saturday night by Leeser, who took his fellow Democrat on an impromptu visit to parts of the city strained by the recent surge, according to pictures shared by Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy.
Hizzoner was photographed inspecting a chain link fence at the US-Mexico border and touring areas of El Paso where migrants have been sleeping on the street as the shelter system for asylum seekers reached capacity. His tour was facilitated by the National Guard, sources told The Post.
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The mayor left his hotel at 8 a.m. Sunday before arriving at El Paso City hall to meet with local officials.
Adams, Leeser and city officials discussed how to “band together to call on the federal government to take the lead on tackling this crisis,” Levy wrote on Twitter.
The mayor was also set to tour an immigration processing facility with US Customs and Border Protection officials before addressing the media Sunday afternoon and then flying back to New York.
Adams’ visit came days after he projected the migrant crisis would cost New York City as much as $2 billion — twice what he had initially estimated.
He had called on federal and state lawmakers to help foot the bill for efforts to house migrants in his sanctuary city. More than 39,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the Big Apple since the spring.
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The mayor said Friday the city’s shelter system was at “its breaking point” and asked Albany to shelter 500 migrants as it planned to appeal to Gov. Kathy Hochul for an “emergency mutual aid request”
Adams had also demanded that the feds offset the cost of the city’s shelter initiative, seeking $1 billion in FEMA reimbursement and as part of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last month.
“That money comes from our schools. It comes from our public safety, our hospitals, our infrastructure, our ACS services, those are our tax dollars that it’s coming from and we got to see an impact in every service we have in the city,” Adams said Friday during a Caribbean Power Jam Radio interview.
“And that is just inhumane on the part of the national government. And I really believe it’s irresponsible, that we have not had a real national response to what’s happening at our border,” he added.
New York City was currently housing about 26,700 migrants with an average of 400 new arrivals every day last week, according to recent statements by the mayor and statistics released by City Hall on Wednesday.
Title 42 was upheld by the Supreme Court last month following legal challenges from 19 Republican-led states. More than two million people fleeing oppression and failing governments had been sent away from the country since it was implemented as a health measure in March of 2020, many of whom had returned in recent months and illegally entered the country as it was set to expire.
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