Mayor Adams didn’t make Washington hearing, but his remarks on migrants did

New York City was portrayed as a key victim of the Biden administration’s border policy in a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday.

Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial remark earlier this month that the recent migrant influx “will destroy New York City” was mentioned at least five times. One Republican lawmaker played a video clip of Adams’ remarks before beginning his questioning.

Congressional Republicans touted the city’s financial woes — and their rare agreement with Adams, a Democrat — as proof of the Biden administration’s failure to crack down on unlawful border crossings.

Rep. Mark E. Green (R-Tennessee), who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security, mentioned Adams’ remarks in his introduction to rebuff any anticipated claims from Democrats about how immigrants, regardless of their legal status, help bolster the economy.

“If that were the case, Mayor Adams in New York City, a Democrat, would not be screaming at the top of his lungs how this mass wave is destroying his city,” Green said.

The hearing — titled “The Financial Costs of Mayorkas’ Open Border,” a reference to the current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — discussed the impacts of recent immigration in border towns and other cities where border state officials have bused migrants in the past year.

Democrats called the hearing a “political dog and pony show” aimed at unfairly blaming the Biden administration, rather than cooperating to prevent a looming government shutdown. Several budget bills have yet to be passed by the required Oct. 1 deadline.

“They want a wedge issue, not solutions,” said ranking committee member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi). “They want to distract from their own infighting and obvious inability to govern.”

New York City Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, was one of the witnesses, alongside Jonathan Lines, a district supervisor on the Yuma County Board of…