New York City Mayor Eric Adams is considering using a cruise ship as housing accommodation for asylum-seekers, whose total has reached close to 13,000.
Adams told reporters on Monday that the city was looking for “creative ways” to address the humanitarian crisis.
An anonymous source told the New York Times that Adams’s chief of staff, Frank Carone, has held conversations with Norwegian Cruise Line leaders about possibly housing asylum-seekers on one of their ships.
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The mayor’s communications director, Maxwell Young, confirmed on Twitter that no taxpayer dollars were used to fund Carone’s three-day vacation on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, part of which was used for research on what “he thought might benefit the city and the asylum seekers.”
No taxpayer money. Carone was on a three day vacation and did a meeting on something he thought might benefit the city and the asylum seekers. (It’s worth asking him about his trip, btw – he was in Normandy to see where his grandfather served). https://t.co/xnxpXORJaq
— Maxwell Young (@maxwellcyoung) September 19, 2022
The recent influx of asylum-seekers to New York City came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent roughly 2,500 immigrants by bus.
Adams has previously stated that his legal team is looking at legal challenges caused by Abbott’s move, not wanting to leave “any stones unturned.”
As the arrival of immigrants and asylum-seekers continues, New York City has opened 23 emergency shelters, with plans to open 38 more as of Sunday, following the city’s “right to shelter” law that guarantees those without homes will have a bed at night.
Adams, along with several other politicians and officials, is calling the movement of immigrants to cities such as New York and Chicago a political stunt and potentially a violation of the law. He said Abbott promised to coordinate their arrival but never did.
“They took the call, stated that they would coordinate,” Adams told Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week. “And they did not coordinate at all because I don’t think it was politically expedient for them to coordinate. It was more to do this, basically, political showmanship that you’re seeing.”
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On Monday night, Texas authorities out of Bexar County said they are launching an investigation into the flight that brought close to 50 immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, stating that they were lured under false pretenses.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took credit for the move, but he was not specifically named by Texas authorities as a target of the investigation.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Adams’s office for comment.
