New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday once again rejected Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s invitation to visit the southern border in-person.
The ex-cop and Democratic official told ABC News’ This Week that he did not need to physically be on the US-Mexico border to know there was a crisis, and slammed Abbott’s program of busing asylum-seekers to New York and other sanctuary cities as a ‘political ploy.’
Adams also blamed the Texas Republican for the current migrant crisis – despite the hundreds of thousands of people who have been pouring over the border since President Joe Biden took office.
He accused Abbott of willfully rejecting an offer to cooperate, claiming his office reached out once they caught word of the initial buses.
‘We don’t have to stand up on the border to state that the crisis he created is a real crisis,’ the mayor said.
‘It is time for him to be the chief executive that he is and coordinate with every city and every state the buses pass through so we can properly coordinate as leaders of these major municipalities.’
He also dismissed Republican attacks of hypocrisy over the lack of anger at the El Paso mayor also busing migrants – explaining that the mayor had coordinated with the places he was sending buses to, while accusing Abbott of sending people up without so much as water.
‘As you saw the mayor of El Paso indicate that when you have sponsors, it’s an easier transition. If we would have properly coordinated with the governors in these Southern states and state that, let’s find where the sponsors, we have large Venezuelan communities in America,’ Adams said.
‘There was no coordination at all with Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis, just wanted to use this political ploy instead of understanding these are people, these are families, these are human beings.’
Asked if he had any contact at all with the Texas governor as he sent people up north, Adams said: ‘We reached out to Governor Abbott when we first discovered that he was compelling people to get on the bus, he was tagging them. He was sending them on a 45-hour ride, without any proper food, water or medical care.’
He charged that Abbott even turned down efforts at future cooperation.
‘We’ve reached out and stated that, let’s coordinate and work together so we can deal with this crisis together. They refused to do so,’ Adams said.
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