Opinion: Eric Adams and Joe Biden need to talk

Opinion by Julian Zelizer, CNN

(CNN) — Last year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams dubbed himself the “Biden of Brooklyn.” And yet President Joe Biden’s three-day visit to New York City this week did not involve crossing paths with Adams, who has in recent months slammed the president for not doing more to help the city address the influx of about 100,000 migrants, many of whom have been transported from Republican-controlled states like Texas.

Adams, who estimates that it will cost the city $12 billion to house and care for the migrants over three years, has gone so far as to warn that the crisis will “destroy” New York.

The city has been working hard to keep up with the unfolding situation, opening about 200 emergency shelters and already spending over $1.45 billion this fiscal year.

But the issue has descended into finger pointing, with Adams attacking both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Biden. Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson said, “Only Congress can fix the broken immigration system.”

Biden is already in hot water with a key part of his base, facing serious criticism from the United Auto Workers for not doing more to support unions in his efforts to encourage the transition to electric vehicles. Members of the UAW represent a core constituency of working-class Americans in the Midwest — support he will need to win reelection in 2024. With already low approval ratings, the president can’t afford to anger more Democratic voters. Putting aside whether Adams’ pointed rhetoric helps anyone, including himself, the tensions between the city and the White House are palpable.

While we might not yet have reached the “Ford to City: Drop Dead” moment famously immortalized in the New York Daily News headline when President Gerald Ford refused to provide federal assistance to the city in 1975, the relationship between Biden and Adams is deteriorating, and the conditions for migrants could worsen as the city’s resources are already strained.

Biden can’t afford to let this continue.

To be sure, Biden has done much more than Adams has suggested. Biden has taken steps to help, such as deploying federal workers to educate migrants about available services and ramping up electronic communications to keep information flowing. On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it is expanding a form of humanitarian relief for Venezuelans already in the United States, which will speed up their ability to obtain work permits. New York has also received about $140 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Human Services, according to the New York Times.

But it is time for the president, along with congressional Democrats to do more, and demonstrate how Democrats can offer a humane and economically constructive alternative to the hardline solutions of the GOP. If former President Donald Trump focused on building walls and separating migrant families, Biden must lead the Democrats in showing how the United States can be — and has been — a welcoming landing spot for persons fleeing political persecution and economic hardship.

Biden, along with Mayor Adams, must move away from internecine party conflict, focusing instead on the remarkable contributions that immigrants can and have made to our nation. Coming at a moment when New York has been struggling to recover from population loss — some induced by the pandemic but also driven by other factors — and worker shortages, the recent wave of newcomers has the potential to be the best thing that has happened to New York City in many decades — rather than something that will destroy it.

As the economists Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan have shown in their 2022 book, “Streets of Gold,”  immigration has historically had numerous beneficial effects, which include improving the economy and boosting economic prospects for those born in the US.

Besides healing inter-governmental relations and improving the rhetoric, the administration can take a number of key steps. Most important would be easing the work authorization rules and processing times that can bar asylum seekers from working for as a year or more. This prevents them from moving outside of the shelter system and establishing themselves financially. As former Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently argued in The New York Times, “Think about it: We have a system that essentially allows an unlimited number of people to cross our borders, forbids them to work, offers them free housing and grants them seven years of residency before ruling on whether they can legally stay. It would be hard to devise a more backward and self-defeating system.”

Second, the federal government must provide more legal resources and administrative personnel to help asylum seekers through the process. This too will ensure that individuals can move as quickly as possible toward the opportunity to work and to contribute to the community around them. Legal representation will also help the state and city government by lowering the budgetary obligations for detention and legal proceedings.

Finally, and this is a broader goal, but this is an opportunity to deal with the serious problem of affordable housing. For many years, advocates of affordable housing have been warning that big cities face a problem. Rents have skyrocketed, property costs have risen, and it is increasingly hard for middle- and working-class Americans, who have always been the heart and soul of vibrant cities, to find a place to live. Now is a moment for intergovernmental efforts, combined with necessary reforms of zoning rules, to get to work on renovating empty spaces that migrants and others can start to call home in future years.

Of course, Biden has not been wrong to say that the most important step would be for Congress to finally take action and pass sweeping legislation to fix our immigration system and provide efficient pathways to citizenship. Several administrations have failed to achieve this goal, with the major stumbling block having been a Republican Party that since the 1990s has embraced an increasingly hardline approach to immigration.  

The migrant crisis presents an opportunity. Throughout American history, immigration has been the lifeblood of our economy, culture, and social fabric. It will continue to be so. But at this moment, our politicians have to act by allowing migrants to make a life for themselves in our cities and become part of our communities. Going about this the right way would boost the economy, enrich our society and continue the American way.

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