Eric Adams suggests he is being targeted by Biden administration over criticism of migrant crisis

Eric Adams has implied that the criminal indictment against him is a result of his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis.

The Democrat became the first sitting New York Mayor to be federally indicted on Wednesday, almost a year after his phones were seized as part of an investigation into illegal foreign donations.

Responding to the charges, Mr Adams suggested the investigation was the result of the Biden administration unfairly targeting him because of his criticism of the White House for failing to help the city cope with the influx of immigrants crossing the US southern border.

“I have been fighting injustice my entire life”, Mr Adams, 64, said during a video address on Wednesday night.

“That fight has continued as your mayor.

“Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics.”

More than 210k migrants in New York since 2022

Once close allies, the relationship between Joe Biden and Mr Adams has cooled in recent years as the New York Mayor continued to criticise the president over the migrant crisis.

And Donald Trump, at a press conference in New York on Thursday night, said that he predicted Mr Adams would be indicted because of critical comments he made about migrants.

“I remember NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a year ago, criticizing the federal government for the migrant crisis,” he said.

“And I said, ‘within a year, he’d be indicted.’ And I was right. That’s what happened. And I noticed the indictment is very old. I have the same thing. I wish him well.”

More than 210,000 migrants have arrived in the Empire State since the spring of 2022.

New York has a legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who asks, and the influx of migrants, many of which were bussed up to the United States’ most populated city by Texas governor Greg Abbott, pushed the already stretched public system to breaking point.

“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” the mayor said last year.

“This issue will destroy New York City.”

Accusing Mr Biden and New York governor Kathy Hochul of failing to help with the crisis, Mr Adams said last November: “DC has abandoned us, and they need to be paying their cost to this national problem. Don’t yell at me, yell at DC.”

At Thursday’s fiery press conference, Mr Adams suggested the indictment against him is politically-motivated.

Asked whether the indictment is political, he suggested we should “ask who ordered the directive”.

Mr Adams was heckled relentlessly during the hostile press conference as he attempted to defend the five criminal charges he is facing.

Crowds yelled for him to resign and called him “a disgrace to the black community”.

Mr Adams was interrupted numerous times as he said there would be no circumstances under which he would resign.