https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/nyregion/adams-albany-migrant-crisis.html

With the migrant crisis continuing to roil New York City, Mayor Eric Adams appeared to score a win last month when the governor vowed to commit $2.4 billion — more than double last year’s proposal — to cover the costs of caring for the tens of thousands of people who have arrived in New York to seek refuge.

But on Tuesday, Mr. Adams said even that would not be enough.

Testifying at the State Capitol in Albany, the mayor told lawmakers that the state would need to pony up at least half the cost of caring for migrants to keep the city from making drastic budget cuts, a figure his team put at $4.6 billion.

“We’re the economic engine of the state,” Mr. Adams said. “And we’ve always been here for the state. We need the state now to be here for us in the city.”

New York officials had hoped to divide the cost of sheltering migrants equally among the city, state and federal governments. But federal officials refused to commit to that arrangement, leaving the city to press the state for more funds.

Following the press conference the embattled mayor released a video statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying “what we are dealing with in many ways is worse than what we dealt with on 9/11. On that fateful day, the attacks were over quickly. 9/11 was a one day event. Within two hours everything was wrapped up. But this migrant crisis is different. The migrant and crime issue is daily. Hourly. It is tearing the greatest city in the world apart”

In addition to more money for migrants, the mayor used his trip to Albany — an annual tradition known as Tin Cup Day when local leaders make their budget pitches to the state — to meet with legislative leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul. He also pressed lawmakers for mayoral control of schools, the authority to address illegal cannabis vendors and an expansion of the city’s borrowing power.

While mayors often face tough crowds in Albany, Mr. Adams found a broadly sympathetic audience this year, fielding compliments from both sides of the aisle for different aspects of his handling of the migrant crisis, despite the partisan disagreements about the broader fixes for the problem.

The warm reception was no doubt welcome to Mr. Adams, whose popularity has waned amid local and federal investigations of people in the mayor’s orbit and into his fund-raising practices. Earlier today, an unrelated federal inquiry resulted in the indictment of 70 people associated with the New York City Housing Authority, an investigation that Justice Department officials have called one of the largest public corruption cases in history.