New York City Mayor Eric Adams went to Colombia, Darién Gap (a dangerous jungle separating Panama and Colombia), Ecuador, and Mexico to convince people not to come to New York City.
Adams failed. Miserably.
Many people in those areas said they will still come to America and New York:
In more than a dozen interviews this week in Necoclí and on the streets of Mexico City and Ecuador’s capital, Quito, most U.S.-bound migrants said that they would not be dissuaded by Mr. Adams’s statements. The city has been increasingly overwhelmed by the 120,000 migrants who have arrived since last year; sheltering them has become so costly that the mayor has called for budget cuts. On his trip, Mr. Adams has called for countries to work together to help the migrants.Johanna del Valle Acosta, traveling with her fiancé and three children from the Falcón state of Venezuela, said she understood Mr. Adams’s mission. “I think he, as mayor, is defending his country,” she said as Mr. Adams headed toward Necoclí, a poor fishing and tourist town that has been transformed by migrants making their way north.But she asked for compassion. “Suddenly other countries see us as a threat, but we are good people who want to work,” she said. The day’s spectacle included a protest, hastily organized by an activist from New York, in which migrants chanted “Shame on you” at the mayor.
Adams’ trip offended Carlos Gabriel Hernández and his family: “How can you tell someone not to follow their American dream?”
Jhonatan Antony Velásquez Diaz and his wife, with their 6-month-old daughter, traveled from Venezuela to Mexico City. It took 22 days, and someone robbed them at gunpoint on the way there.
The Diaz family won’t stop:
Mr. Velásquez said that friends who had made it to New York “tell me to come, that a lot of them have jobs.”“That lifts me up and helps me to keep going,” he said.He said he doubted Mr. Adams’s words would carry much weight. “No matter what, people are going to get there, and I’m not going to be discouraged by what a politician says or a mayor says.”
Henry Aguilar, his wife, three children, and their dog made their way from Venezuela. His friends in New York offered another picture:
“I’ve been here for a little more than a week, and I haven’t been able to find work,” the friend was heard saying. “It’s not as easy as they paint it.”Mr. Aguilar, 34, a former military bodyguard in Venezuela, had planned to bring his family to New York, but after hearing that there were no places to stay, he set his sights on Texas.
I mean, Adams’ trip is more than what the Biden administration has done. When’s the last time “border Czar” Kamala Harris even had a serious conversation about the border and immigration? I’m not talking Q&A segments.
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