By Marcia Kramer

January 5, 2023 / 6:33 PM / CBS New York

NEW YORK -- President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new crackdown on illegal crossings at the Southern border, but Mayor Eric Adams said much more is needed to relieve the migrant crisis in New York City.

It's not that Adams is ungrateful for the president's latest efforts to reduce the flow of immigrants and asylum seekers coming into the country, but for a mayor struggling to feed, clothe and house tens of thousands of people, it is just not enough.

"This is a real problem that we're facing and we need to raise that level of I believe what we need to do to resolve the issue," Adams said.

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The mayor didn't slam the president's latest efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigrants by limiting the number of people from Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who can enter the country legally. After all, he admitted that it would provide some relief to New York City, which has already been forced to find shelter for 36,400 asylum seekers.

But he called on Biden and lawmakers in Washington to revamp their efforts as New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Texas border cities are between a rock and a hard place in terms of coping with the problem.

"We need to make sure that there's a decompression strategy, that those who are here and who are coming here, it's being spread throughout the entire country, not just in certain cities. We need to make sure the funding is there, so we're not taking away needed services from the residents of our cities," Adams said.

The new crackdown falls short of a full overhaul of immigration laws. Under the plan, people in the countries would have to apply for entry into the U.S. while still in their home country. They would use an app on their phones. They would need to find a sponsor -- a relative, church of nonprofit groups, and pass a security check.

"My message is this: if you're trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, do not, do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there," Biden said.

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Under the plan, people who try to cross the border illegally would be automatically ineligible for the new program, and those who try to cross the border would be expelled to Mexico, which has agreed to accept 30,000 immigrants each month from the countries.

CBS2 asked Adams if he was disappointed with the president's latest attempt to deal with the border crisis.

"I don't think the term is disappointment. I just don't believe this is the end of the sentence. This is a comma. We need to continue that sentence, so it ends with an exclamation point that we have resolved our decade of border crises," the mayor said.

Adams said he also wants Washington to change its labor policies so asylum seekers can legally work while the applications for asylum are being processed.

Marcia Kramer joined CBS2 in 1990 as an investigative and political reporter. Prior to CBS2, she was the City Hall bureau chief at the New York Daily News.

First published on January 5, 2023 / 6:33 PM

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