NYC Mayor Adams challenges critic of migrant crisis policies: ‘You have an accent’

Metro

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By Carl Campanile

July 27, 2023 | 7:00pm

Mayor Eric Adams called out a critic who questioned the city’s response to the ongoing migrant crisis during a fiery exchange on Wednesday evening.

Hizzoner was confronted by Marie Lynch, a Honduran native and Queens Republican activist, who accused him of catering to asylum seekers after he spoke at a tribute for singing legend Tony Bennett at Athens Park in Astoria.

“Why are you treating illegal aliens better than you are treating Americans? Why are you destroying the city with illegal aliens,” Lynch asked the mayor, according to a recording obtained by The Post.

“Oh, man,” Adams said.

“Don’t `oh man me,’” Lynch said.

“Why are you destroying our city and providing for illegal aliens when our veterans and the mentally ill are on the street around the corner from here?”

“You know what?” Adams responded.

“You have an accent.”

Lynch retorted: “Yes, I have an accent. I’ll tell you why. I work here and never asked for a dime from anybody.”

The mayor responded that ‘they [migrants] don’t want to ask for a dime, either.”

“Yes, they do,” Lynch shot back.

“You’re giving them free medical care, free housing.”

City Hall defended the mayor calling out Lynch’s accent.

“As the mayor very often says, unless you’re of indigenous descent, your family came from somewhere else. It’s true of the vast majority of New Yorkers. That’s the only point the mayor was making,” said Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy.

Lynch told The Post that she came to the United States with her family “legally” when she was 14, and while she wasn’t concerned about Adams pointing out her non-native English accent, it could be considered an “ethnic slur.”

Meanwhile, City Hall was getting backlash Thursday for announcing its opening yet another migrant shelter — what city officials are calling a temporary 90-day “respite center” – at the former St. Agnes School in College Point, Queens.

“There’s no plan. There’s no end game here. I’d like to put these migrant facilities by Biden’s house in Delaware,” fumed NYC Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens).

“This city must suspend our sanctuary city status and duty to house via emergency declaration, and begin refusing migrant transports, and the Governor must assist this city in removing migrants and assist with housing them elsewhere,” said Paladino, who represents College Point.

She did say City Hall vowed that the local 109th Pct. will have a squad car will be posted onsite at all times.

More than 90,000 migrants have trekked to the city since last year, and account for 56,000 of the more than 100,000 people in the Big Apple’s overwhelmed shelter system — a record number.

“New York City continues to receive thousands of asylum seekers each week, and we have stepped up and led the nation, but this national crisis should not fall on cities alone to navigate. We need a national solution here,” said the mayor.