New Yorker Asks Mayor Eric Adams Point Blank What Services Migrants Are Receiving From The City

4 months ago

On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams was asked what benefits migrants are receiving in New York City.

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Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, Mayor.

00:01How are you?

00:02You sort of touched base on what's going on in the city and what you acquired.

00:07Here's my question, and I think it lends to a lot of misunderstanding with the people.

00:13Yes.

00:14What are the services that the migrants are receiving from the city right now?

00:19Love it.

00:20That's probably one of the top questions we receive at every town hall.

00:25And I hear all the time, they are getting more than what long-term New Yorkers are

00:31getting.

00:32First of all, I wanted to lay out the foundation that I have no control on what they are getting

00:37and not.

00:38I have to follow the law.

00:40Second, people say, well, okay, they're staying in five-star hotels.

00:44No.

00:45They're staying in tents.

00:49Thousands of restrooms are outdoors.

00:52Their showers are outdoors.

00:55We pay, on average, $11 a day for three meals for them, for three meals.

01:02They get the basic services.

01:04They're not eligible for what everyday New Yorkers are eligible for.

01:09They're not eligible for our WIC.

01:11They're not eligible for our vouchers program.

01:14They're not eligible for all those items.

01:16And so you saw the newspaper story that says, okay, Eric is giving them credit cards to

01:20buy food.

01:21No.

01:22Here's what we were doing.

01:23We found a company called Mocify.

01:25Mocify said to us, when I was on a campaign trail, I learned about them.

01:29And Mocify said to us, people are not eating the food that they're wasting the food, that

01:35we're spending money on buying.

01:38They said, we can give people a food card only that they can go in, instead of you spending

01:46millions and billions of dollars from an out-of-town entity to bring food into your city, you could

01:52get this card, $11.50 per day, per person, and they can go into the local stores and

02:01restaurants and buy the money locally, so the money would stay in your community.

02:06This is going to save you $600,000 a month, over $7 million a year, and you're going to

02:14cut down on food waste, so we're not wasting money.

02:17People yelled in the beginning, but now the editorial board of the Daily News saying right

02:22on to what y'all doing.

02:23We're saving money.

02:25We are putting that money, instead of our money going to some place out of our state

02:29and city and communities, people are now walking into the local bodegas, the local restaurants,

02:35and they're buying right there on the ground, where you could hire locally.

02:39And that is how we have to deal with this crisis, we have to find smart ways.

02:42And then we said to the migrants and asylum seekers, you got 30 days.

02:47You come in, you're a single adult, you got to find your way, like every other person

02:51that came to this country.

02:52In 30 days, we're going to give you intense care, we're going to give you information,

02:57we're going to be like the settlement houses of yesteryears, and we're going to show you

03:00how to move through the system, but you can't stay here forever.

03:04We got a lot of pushback, people took us to court, people called me names, they said I'm

03:08inhumane, 30 days, 30 days.

03:12When we did that, 65% of the people were able to go find their own way.

03:19And you saw a decrease in that 207,000 that came here, we're now down to 65,000 that are

03:25here.

03:26And we're still getting folks, we were getting 4,000 people a week, 8,000 every two weeks,

03:3216,000 a month, we're still getting 1,000 a week that are coming here.

03:38But we're able to navigate and tell them when they come here, you can only stay in our system

03:43for 30 days, after that, you have to find your way.

03:46And all of this changes if we let them work.

03:50I need lifeguards, food service workers, nurses, I need bilingual educators, I need translators.

03:58If we allow people to work, we would not be dealing with this problem we're facing right

04:03now.

04:04That is the key, employment, that's the dignity that people deserve.

04:08And all of you, we're all Americans now, but go back into your lineage, imagine if your

04:15family members that came to this country was told you cannot work, you cannot provide for

04:21your family.

04:22There's nothing more undignified than someone telling you you can't provide for your family.

04:28And when I go to those camps, those encampments, they all say the same thing when I walk in.

04:33We don't want your free food, we don't want you taking care of our children, we don't

04:37want you washing our clothing, we just want to work.

04:41That's all we want.

04:42And that's what we need to do.

04:44But they're getting nothing over what everyday New Yorkers are getting.

04:48But we're going to treat them with dignity and respect.

04:51I'm not going to be undignified in how I treat them.

04:54And that's what we have been doing, bringing down that cost, navigating this very challenging

04:59problem that we're facing.

New Yorker Asks Mayor Eric Adams Point Blank What Services Migrants Are Receiving From The City

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