By: Fern Sidman

In a revealing conversation with The New York Post’s Miranda Devine on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams lauded President Donald Trump’s handling of the U.S. southern border, asserting that the former president’s decisive action brought long-overdue relief to a city reeling from the migrant influx.

Adams, a Democrat now running for re-election as an independent, cast blame squarely on the Biden administration for allowing the border situation to spiral “out of control,” resulting in a financial and logistical crisis that, he said, left New York City scrambling to shelter, educate, and feed tens of thousands of migrants — at a cost of $7.7 billion over a three-year period.

“The Trump administration secured the border, and because of that, you’re not seeing the thousands of people coming in, and it has been a real relief for our city,” Adams told The New York Post during the podcast. He described the change as a turning point for the city’s overwhelmed public services.

The mayor emphasized that the financial toll of the crisis was not merely a budgetary inconvenience — it represented a direct threat to the city’s ability to meet other essential needs. “Seven billion of that went to the crisis,” Adams said. “That just was not sustainable. I tried my best to explain to DC over and over again, and they just didn’t hear it.”

According to The New York Post report, Adams said he made repeated pleas to the White House for assistance and warned of the worsening situation. He described personal meetings with President Biden and top administration officials — including Biden senior adviser Tom Perez — during which he and Governor Kathy Hochul “personally conveyed” the severity of the situation. Yet those appeals, Adams said, were met with inaction.

“His team probably told him that everything was under control, when, in fact, everything was not under control. Everything was out of control,” Adams told The New York Post. “Governor Hochul and I sat down and spoke with the president and shared with him that his people are not giving him real information, that the flow had to stop, and it just never did.”

The mayor also addressed safety concerns, acknowledging that “gang members” were among the individuals housed at the Roosevelt Hotel intake center, further fueling public unease.

Adams’ relationship with the Biden administration soured further following his outspoken criticism. He now believes the subsequent corruption probe launched by Manhattan federal prosecutors may have been politically motivated retaliation. While stopping short of directly implicating President Biden, Adams suggested that “Biden’s subordinates put the order out to prosecute him.”

The case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge after the Trump-era Justice Department declined to pursue prosecution. Adams, however, denied any political deal in exchange for the dropped case, clarifying that his only known encounter with then-candidate Trump came during a brief exchange at the 2023 Al Smith Dinner, during which Trump told him he’d been “unfairly prosecuted.”

Since Trump returned to office, Adams said the impact on migration into New York City has been immediate and measurable. “We’re now down to less than 100 migrant asylum seekers coming into our city a week,” he said. “And that’s due to this securing of the border.”

The mayor also came to the defense of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), backing Trump’s reinvigorated enforcement efforts. “We have to stop classifying ICE as an illegal operation,” Adams said. “They’re not. They are a federal governmental law enforcement entity, and we will coordinate with them when we go after illegal, dangerous people, and we have done that.”

The New York Post has chronicled the immense strain the migrant crisis has placed on New York’s infrastructure. Since 2022, over 237,000 migrants have been processed by the city, with up to 4,000 arriving weekly at the height of the crisis. Over 100 hotels were repurposed into emergency shelters to meet demand.

“You could do the math to see how challenging this was,” Adams told The New York Post, highlighting the scale of the logistical response. He praised his administration and city workers for their extraordinary efforts, comparing the challenge to that of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to build an entire shelter system within months … educate 50,000 children, make sure we had to feed, clothe, and house [migrants],” Adams said. Yet despite the effort, he acknowledged that the city’s sanctuary policies and legal obligations, including a “right to shelter,” left him with limited tools to manage the crisis.

Adams concluded his remarks by reiterating the extraordinary burden the migrant influx imposed on city government. “This was an unbelievable achievement that the team was able to accomplish, and I really am pleased by the leaders of this administration who did it,” he said.

Now campaigning as an independent, Adams is navigating a new political landscape — one in which praise for Trump’s policies and blunt criticism of the Democratic establishment may prove more than symbolic. Whether this posture will help him secure another term remains to be seen, but his message, as delivered on The New York Post’s platform, is unequivocal: the border crisis was real, and only now is New York beginning to recover.