NYC Mayor Adams Cancels Border Trip After State Department Warning

New York City Mayor Eric Adams canceled his visit to the southern border due to safety issues, a trip scheduled amid a jump in the number of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States.

Mr. Adams was supposed to visit McAllen and Brownsville, two cities in Texas, on March 24 to meet with immigration leaders. However, “due to safety concerns at one of the cities we were going to visit in Mexico flagged by the U.S. Department of State, we have decided to pause this visit at this time,” a New York City Hall spokesperson told The Hill. The cancellation comes as the southern border is seeing a massive influx of illegal aliens.

The total number of border encounters in the first five months of fiscal year 2024—from October 2023 to February 2024—was more than 1.15 million, up almost 12 percent from the 1.03 million in the same period in fiscal year 2023.

If the visit to the south had proceeded as planned, it would have been Mr. Adams’s second mayoral visit to the border. His first trip occurred in January 2023 when he visited El Paso to ascertain how the Texas city was dealing with the influx of illegal aliens.

Later in October, he visited Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, during which time he asked people there not to take an illegal trip into the United States.

Related Stories

Mr. Adams was invited to visit Mexico by Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. His office did not clarify which Mexican city had safety concerns that forced the mayor to cancel his trip, which was scheduled amid a Texas state law dealing with illegal immigrants that is being challenged in court.

Senate Bill 4 makes it a state crime for any illegal alien to cross into Texas from Mexico other than from legal entry points. A person violating the rule can be punished with a six-month prison term. Repeat violations would subject the person to up to 20 years in prison.

The rule allows law enforcement authorities to seek papers from migrants and arrest them almost anywhere in the state. The law was signed into effect in December by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to come into effect. But later, an appeals court allowed a lower court’s earlier blockade of the law to stand.

The city has reached an agreement with the Legal Aid Society to end the right to shelter for adult immigrants after a 30-day stay. The rule does not affect families with children.

“The agreement also applies only to single adults. A staggering 78 percent come with children and get priority placement in hotels,” wrote Ms. McCaughey, who also contributes to The Epoch Times.

“The city currently spends a whopping $387 per night for food and a roof alone for each family and shells out more money for free medical care, education, and legal services. This agreement does zero to alleviate those staggering costs,” she continued.

Moreover, “the fine print says illegal immigrants have a shot at staying longer if they obtain driver’s licenses, follow shelter rules, and show good behavior, or—get this one—apply for public benefits. And this is a ‘non-exhaustive’ list of reasons making illegal immigrants eligible to stay longer,” she added.

A person with fake IDs could “load up a truck with bombs … and bring it underneath the Holland Tunnel and create something major and disastrous,” Mr. Foucart told the New York Post.

“For someone that wants to do terrorist activity or is a national security threat, it’s easy to establish this second life within the US … I guarantee right now, we’re just waiting for another 9/11,” he added.

“Do I think we have a chance? New York has changed a lot in the last two years. We have migrants all over the street. They are living on Madison Avenue. Nobody can believe what’s happened to New York,” he said.

President Trump claimed that New York City residents are “unhappy” because crime rates have hit “record levels.”

“The people of New York are angry. People that would have never voted for me because I’m a Republican. I mean, they’re Democrats … I think they’re going to vote for me. So I think we’re going to give New York a heavy shot,” he said.