New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrived in Mexico this week on an urgent four-day mission: to witness firsthand the forces that have brought more than 120,000 migrants to New York, and to warn migrants about the misery that awaits them once they leave. Used to be. they arrive.
He planned to visit the routes migrants take through Ecuador and Colombia – including a dangerous stretch of jungle on the border of Colombia and Panama, known as the Darien Gap. But first, Mr. Adams spent 24 hours in Mexico cheerleading for his city and singing the praises of immigrants.
On Thursday, he promoted “Empire State of Mind” at a forum on Mexican-American trade relations in Mexico City. While advocating for the city’s emerging technology sector, he extended an invitation: “Any tech company out here, wherever you are, pack your bags, move to New York City and bring it here.”
He then went to the city of Puebla to pay homage to the hometown of New York City’s majority Mexican immigrant community. In a speech at Puebla’s state congress building, Mr. Adams told how the New York City Commissioner of Immigration, who joined him on the trip, came to Puebla as a child “in search of the American dream.”
“I am here in Mexico to say that we have been partners for a long time. We are neighbours. We are acquainted,” he said. “Me casa es su casa.”
The divided purpose of his visit – to sell New York as a great place to do business, but as a terrible place for new immigrants to work or live – reflects the challenges Mr. Adams faces in his home country. I do.
Less than two years into his tenure, the distraction and cost of finding new places to live and feed the 60,000 immigrants currently in the city’s care have derailed his agenda and exacerbated some of the city’s most pressing problems. has increased, including the growing housing crisis.
The migrant crisis has also pushed back his constituents and at times pitted him against other Democrats who might otherwise be allies, including President Biden and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The Adams administration has responded to the problem in a variety of ways. This week, city lawyers continued their effort to overturn the court ruling that requires the city to house all homeless people, including migrants. He asked the judge to let the mayor waive the so-called right to shelter for certain groups during the “emergency.”
Mr. Adams has also taken to the streets of Washington, D.C., and to the border to make his case that the federal government should do more to help and stop the flow of migrants.
Earlier in the week, the mayor said that on this trip, he planned to send a message to the media in Latin America that New York City was a no-brainer and that migrants should not expect to “stay in a five-star hotel.” ,
In a room of Puebla’s congressional building that features an ornate memorial to migrants killed crossing the border, decorated with statues of angels and crying babies, he told reporters that one of his goals was “to appeal to the people of all those countries Communicating is where we are” The New York City tour has reached capacity and we don’t want to turn their aspiration for the dream into a nightmare.
Immigration expert Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, who has researched messaging around immigration, offered a candid assessment of the mayor’s plan. “I don’t believe this method will be effective,” said Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan, deputy director of the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank.
He said the mayor’s claim that there is space in the city contradicts social media posts and news accounts seen by migrants, which show people looking for places to live and work in the city.
“The second problem,” Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan said, “is the messenger: People understand that government actors have their own incentives and interests behind the message they are trying to convey.” They said they trust what they hear from people they know and trust more.
Mr. Adams’s negative campaign could easily backfire, Ms. Banulescu-Bogdan said. The unrealistic vision of the mayor of America’s financial capital — a stylish man with swagger — traveling thousands of miles in one of the most depressing places on Earth may inadvertently serve as a recruiting tool, he said.
Expats may come away thinking that if the mayor is so concerned about the city’s resources being wasted that he is willing to tell them off in person, then the city must be a place of tremendous resources. On the other hand, he said, there could be benefits domestically for Mr. Adams to be seen as a pragmatic leader “willing to roll up his sleeves.”
Before this trip, the mayor frequently met with migrants to hear their stories. On his visit to the border in January, he told a group of migrants in El Paso that he would fight to enable them to work and “experience the American dream,” even as he barred them from coming to New York. Tried to stop. ,
In a speech in Mexico City on Thursday morning, he warned about the potential negative impacts of migrants, suggesting that a large population of men “could affect shopping.”
Later in the day, he clarified that he was not trying to say that there was evidence that immigrants are responsible for the increase in shoplifting. Mr Adams said the influx of migrants was creating “a depressing environment”.
The mayor said he did not feel he was giving “mixed messages” in his visit.
Later in the day, in Puebla, the mayor received an honorary college degree, a framed plaque from the state Congress bearing the word “Recognition” in Spanish, and the Governor’s Cinco de Mayo Medal.
At a reception in the courtyard of the Governor’s Palace, where the crowd included sons and daughters of Puebla who had moved to New York and become successful, Mr. Adams compared the benefits of immigration to the pollination process. It almost seemed like an invitation to newcomers.
“We can cross-pollinate our region with migrants and asylum seekers,” he said. “We only win when we pollinate them, so they can produce the flowers we have the privilege of producing.
“So let’s overcome this crisis together.”
Just after midnight, the mayor boarded a flight to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. A visit to a refugee center awaited them in the morning.
Jeffrey C. Mays Contributed to the reporting.