Unlike many Democrats, New York Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he does not want to be at war with the incoming Trump administration on the border crisis and that he plans to soon meet with Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump's point man on the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
"I reached out and he's looking forward to meet this week or next week," Adams said of Homan, according to a news conference transcript. "So we communicated this morning and he stated that, you know, once he settles, we'll reach out and we'll coordinate, our teams will coordinate for the most part.
"I want people to talk to each other. And I made it clear that I'm not going to be warring with this administration. I'm going to be working with this administration. President Trump is the president-elect and whomever he chooses to run his agencies, I'm looking forward to sit down and see how we better New York."
Adams detailed how the city has spent $6.4 billion on addressing a surge of asylum seekers through October and how that money would have been better spent. He said $400 million could have gone to addressing chronic absenteeism in schools, $600 million on hiring 2,000 guidance counselors and social workers in schools, and $200 million for hiring 1,000 more police officers.
Adams, who is facing federal corruption charges to which he has pleaded not guilty, also said New York has seen a significant drop in asylum seekers over the past 21 weeks.
"We've done several scenario plannings and our goal is to keep decreasing our numbers," he said. "And because of what the team has done around the decreasing in the numbers, we're hoping we won't have to use any of these HERRCs [Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers].
"We want these numbers to continue to decrease. We want to take that $6.4 billion and whatever it is and put it into the services of New Yorkers."
He said he has not changed his stance regarding mass deportations of illegal immigrants but wants those who commit crimes to be deported. Homan told Newsmax last month that the main goal of Trump's mass deportation plan is to first target criminal illegal immigrants.
"What rights I have, the person that decides to shoot a police officer, they should not have those same rights," Adams said. "I look forward to hearing what is the idea of the border czar. I've said it over and over again.
"We need to fix the immigration problem in this city. The American people said that. I don't know if you really watch the election results. The president-elect hit the popular vote, hit the electoral vote. He was not indecisive on what his positions were. He was clear we need to secure our border. ... The American people heard it. They voted for it."
"It didn't matter who was the president for me. I said the same thing. New York City should not be going through this. Chicago should not be going through this. Denver should not be going through this. The American people should not be going through this," he said.
"And the migrants and asylum seekers should not be going through this. We're placing them in a position that is unfair and is inhumane."