"The Five" co-host Geraldo Rivera joined "Fox & Friends" to discuss how NYC is experiencing a crisis as the city struggles to find room for the migrants entering the city. Rivera was asked about a warning from city business leaders about summer tourist season as migrants occupy New York City hotel rooms normally booked by visitors.
GERALDO RIVERA: It is no doubt a legitimate crisis in New York. 3,500 hotel rooms are being occupied currently by migrants. Governor Hochul wants to help Mayor Adams. The city is taking most of the burden. It's been almost 70,000 have arrived since this crisis began. There are 40,000 now, right now that need housing. Hotel rooms are being taken up. So the city, in its desperation, has turned to the state. The state says, well, maybe use our old psychiatric hospitals that have been closed or maybe the dorms of the State University of New York, SUNY New York, because now the semester is ending. But, you know, Lawrence, there's a problem. We've got to deal with the problem. What do you do about the problem? The solution, I believe, is to give expedited work permits to these migrants, bypass some of the red tape, and let them work so they can pay for their own hotels.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said this week that migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border should be sent to every city "throughout the entire country."
"We have 108,000 cities, villages, towns. If everyone takes a small portion of that, and if it's coordinated at the border, to ensure that those who are coming here to this country in a lawful manner is actually moved throughout the entire country, it is not a burden on one city," Adams said in an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday.
"And the numbers need to be clear. We received over 70,000 migrant asylum seekers in our city, 42,000 are still in our care. If this is properly handled at the border level, this issue can be resolved while we finally get Congress, particularly the Republican Party, to deal with a comprehensive immigration policy."
Amid reports that the White House and fellow Democrat Adams have butted heads over the migrant crisis, notably as the mayor of New York City stepped away from President Joe Biden's reelection advisory board, CBS host Margaret Brennan on Sunday asked about whether, in Adams' view, the supposed $30 million in federal funding to address the influx into the Big Apple was enough.
Adams said that New York City has already spent more than $1 billion in addressing the migrant crisis and is projected to need more than $4 billion more in funding.
