Documents reveal Eric Adams sent migrants to Florida, Texas and China

NEW YORK — After lashing out at leading Republicans for busing asylum-seekers to Democrat-led cities, New York Mayor Eric Adams turned around and did something similar — sending dozens of migrants to red states like Florida and Texas.

And Adams didn’t stop at the nation’s borders.

Between April 2022 and April 2023, New York City spent around $50,000 to resettle 114 migrant households in cities around the U.S. and the globe, according to information obtained exclusively by POLITICO through a public information request. Some were sent to countries in South America — and one all the way to China.

The most common destinations were Florida, which received 28 families, and Texas, which received 14.

That represents a fraction of the nearly 79,000 migrants who entered the city since last spring, and is thousands fewer than Gov. Greg Abbott has sent out of Texas. But the fact that New York City paid for trips to Republican strongholds could further inflame national tensions on a subject that is sure to influence both Congressional races and President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.

At the same time, Adams is in a tight spot: The migrant crisis is costing the city billions. And as pressure on its shelter system reaches a critical level, the mayor is trying every possible release valve from busing asylum-seekers to other destinations to housing them in former jails.

In September, Adams condemned Texas Gov. Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for transporting migrants to New York City, calling it a stunt. At the time, Abbott had been sending buses of asylum-seekers to New York City — charters that have continued — while DeSantis sent planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

“This was part of a political ploy and that's what we need to understand,” Adams said during an appearance on MSNBC last fall.

In May, Adams accused Abbott of targeting cities run by Black mayors — though buses also arrived in Philadelphia, run by a white mayor — with his busing program and said the Texas governor was refusing to coordinate with city officials.

Abbott’s office said its busing program is designed to provide relief to Texas towns far smaller than New York that have been overrun, and that the mayor has touted New York City’s sanctuary status in the past.

“Less than three weeks ago, Mayor Adams said busing migrants is ‘morally bankrupt.’ Where is all the outrage and condemnation from the White House and Democrats for one of their own sending migrants out of town, out of state, and even out of the country?” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. "Instead of these hypocritical charades, Mayor Adams needs to call on President Biden and Congress to step up and do their jobs to secure the southern border."

DeSantis’ office did not comment on the new data. Abbott has sent around 9,700 asylum seekers to New York City while DeSantis has flown about 85 migrants to Massachusetts and California.

Mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart said the efforts of Texas and New York are completely different.

Texas has been chartering whole buses to New York City whereas the Adams administration has been purchasing individual tickets for migrants who want to leave the state, she said. New York officials found that some asylum-seekers who arrived from Texas did not want to come in the first place and were dehydrated and malnourished when they got to Manhattan. She pointed to reports that asylum-seekers leaving Texas were wearing barcoded bracelets, were prevented from getting off the bus mid-journey and signed waivers many did not understand.

“In contrast, New York City has, as we have discussed very publicly for months, worked to connect individuals with friends, family, and networks whether in New York City or outside of it,” Smart said in a statement. “We are not coercing people to leave, we are not suggesting or recommending locations, and we are not presenting any kind of false choice. We are helping people who want to reconnect with loved ones or communities do so.”

The mayor’s rhetoric on asylum-seekers has directly targeted President Joe Biden on a sensitive campaign issue, and his policy of busing migrants to New York counties outside the city could make immigration a damaging campaign issue for Democrats in several toss-up Congressional races that could help decide control of the House next year.

While Adams’ migrant rhetoric has irked members of Biden’s inner circle — the mayor was dropped from a list of Biden surrogates earlier this year — other Democrats have been quietly pleased he has been outspoken on an issue facing many cities around the country with little help from the federal government.

Since last spring, more than 78,700 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, with 48,700 of them still in the city’s social support system, officials said this week. To accommodate the influx, the Adams administration has opened 174 new sites that include emergency shelters and intake centers. Through next summer, the city expects to spend at least $4.3 billion on the crisis.

Last fall, the city announced a reticketing program that assists asylum-seekers who want to be somewhere other than New York. That program, called Project Reconnect, exists separately from other reticketing initiatives run by nonprofits such as Catholic Charities, but provides a window into where arriving migrants ultimately want to go.

Within the United States, the city’s Department of Social Services assisted with travel to 64 cities in 27 states, in addition to helping one household get to Washington, according to the data obtained by POLITICO. After Florida and Texas, the next most common destination was North Carolina, where six families traveled.

The program even sent asylum-seekers abroad. The Adams administration paid for four households to travel to Colombia, two to Peru, and one household apiece to China, Ecuador and Venezuela.

At a press conference in October, Adams administration officials said around a third of migrants who came to New York City ultimately wanted to be somewhere else, but arrived in Manhattan anyway because the only free buses out of Texas were to New York and Chicago.

Because the country’s largest population of Venezuelans live in Florida, for example, most Venezuelan asylum-seekers said they wanted to head south, according to Manuel Castro, head of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“It really is up to the individuals,” he said at the October press briefing. “We want to make sure that we support people [getting] to where they wish to go themselves.”

And earlier this year, the city was sending busloads of migrants to a town near the Canadian border, which many asylum-seekers then crossed at an unauthorized gap. Trips within New York were not accounted for in the data.

“We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else,” Adams said during an interview with a local Fox affiliate in February. “Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream.”