Advisor to NYC Mayor Adams urges feds to 'close the borders' as sanctuary city buckles

New York City officials have urged the federal government to secure the southern border as the Big Apple struggles to contend with an influx of illegal immigrant arrivals that have strained the city's resources.

Appearing this week on PIX11 News, Ingrid Lewis Martin, chief advisor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, called on the federal government to secure the border to limit new arrivals and devise a strategy for distributing existing ones throughout the country.

"The federal government needs to do its job. We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do their job: close the borders," Martin insisted. "And until you close the borders, you need to come on with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them through our 50 states."

NEW: on possibility of right to shelter changing in NYC, chief advisor to @NYCMayor, Ingrid Lewis Martin says in the meantime “we need the federal government, the congress, the senate and the president to do their job, close the borders.” #PIXonPolitics @PIX11News pic.twitter.com/AXShVVSYkW

— Dan Mannarino (@DanMannarino) October 1, 2023

Martin further highlighted that 118,000 immigrants had arrived in New York over the past year, but that the city still had "in excess of 61,400 migrants" for whom to find shelter. Part of the influx stems from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's policy of busing migrants to sanctuary cities in a bid to draw attention to the Biden Administration's lax approach to border enforcement. Thus far, the Lone Star State has sent at least 13,000 people directly to New York City.

The plethora of arrivals has come amid a broader surge in border crossings. More than 7 million people have illegally crossed the border since President Joe Biden took office.

Adams, for his part, has warned that influx will bring ruin to the Big Apple.

"I’m gonna tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I didn’t see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this," he said in September. "This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City."

To partially alleviate the burden, Adams has attempted to suspend the city's "right to shelter" mandate, a bid currently making its way through the court system.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.