Mayor Eric Adams on Monday passionately defended his administration's budgeting for the migrant crisis. 

“I surrender, my math is not the best. Can they talk about the $6 billion. Six billion dollars of taxpayer money went to pay for a crisis that we should not have had to pay for," he said.

What You Need To Know

  • On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams defended his administration's forecasting of migrants spending amid a report disputing the actual costs 

  • A report released by the city's Independent Budget Office showed the city for last year over-budgeted migrant costs by $1 billion 

  • The report comes as migrant population in the city's care has significantly decreased with the city set to close 46 emergency sites by June 2025 

Since 2022, more than 220,000 migrants have come to the city. But in the last six month, the population of new arrivals in the city’s care has significantly decreased. 

Despite the drop, the city's Independent Budget Office claimed the city still greatly overprojected costs.

“If they want to say that we are off by a couple of numbers, we need to adjust it, we’ll adjust it," Adams said.

The report showed that the projection for 2024 was off by $1 billion based on actual spending. And that projections this year have ballooned over $4 billion.

The budget scrutiny comes as the city has been closing dozens of shelters amid a drop in the number of migrants in the city’s care. 

“We said you cannot stay here forever. You did not come to America to live in shelters,” Adams said at a briefing with reporters Monday. “Yesterday, I was out at Floyd Bennett Field, it's unbelievable that shelter is coming down. We had over 2,000 people there, families.” 

By June of this year, the city plans to close 46 emergency shelter sites. 

Under President-elect Donald Trump, Adams is expecting the numbers to continue to fall. 

“The new focus by this administration on ensuring that we secure our border and that we come up with real immigration policies I think is going to assist us. We’re seeing a decrease already, more are leaving than those who are coming in," he said.

Adams officials have already started reaching out to the incoming administration to talk about priorities for the city.  

Trump is set to be inaugurated in a week and the Democratic mayor could potentially be in attendance. 

“The team is still trying to figure out if they're going to let me go,” Adams said. “There’s going to be a lot of things happening over the next few days, the weekend and so we’re still trying to figure it out.”

Later this month, Adams is expected to release his preliminary budget, which will lay out his financial priorities and where the administration will show updates in expected migrant spending.