Is NYC’s Voluntary Resettlement Program the Same Thing as Red State Governors Ejecting Thousands of Asylum Seekers? Click This Link to Find Out

Late last week, Politico dropped a seeming gotcha—Mayor Eric Adams, who has railed against other politicians for sending buses of migrants to New York City, had the City pay for the transport of migrants to other destinations. Basically, Adams was a hypocrite:

After lashing out at leading Republicans for busing asylum-seekers to Democrat-led cities, New York Mayor Eric Adams turned around and did something similar—sending dozens of migrants to red states like Florida and Texas.

New York City's program is voluntary and, in fact, is part of a longstanding City policy to help people in its shelter system reunite with family or friends in other states that they'd rather reside in.

The sharp minds who edit Politico know this. So where was this vital context? Is it in the headline? No. That's "Documents reveal Eric Adams sent migrants to Florida, Texas and China." 

Is it in the subhead? No. That text reads, "Between April 2022 and April 2023, the city spent around $50,000 on travel costs to resettle 114 migrant households around the country and globe." Huh, that's actually quite cost-efficient?

You have to read 13 paragraphs into the story, after they allow a spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott to accuse Adams of perpetuating "hypocritical charades," before you are told that this is a skewed comparison—and even then, it is couched as part of a statement from a mayoral flack, making it appear as though this is all part of "a both parties disagree with one another" type of political squabble:

Mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart said the efforts of Texas and New York are completely different.

Texas has been chartering whole buses to New York City whereas the Adams administration has been purchasing individual tickets for migrants who want to leave the state, she said. New York officials found that some asylum-seekers who arrived from Texas did not want to come in the first place and were dehydrated and malnourished when they got to Manhattan.

Of course, for a media company named Politico, that's what politics all boils down to. While Adams often uses the migrant "crisis" as a way to pursue his own political agenda, it is also true that what New York City is doing is vastly different than what Florida and Texas are doing, and, in fact, New York's whole operation regarding migrants (the guaranteeing of shelter, food, and now, some legal help applying for asylum), goes far beyond what any other city is attempting, even as critics correctly argue the City should be doing more. But that's a boring Politico headline.

Some other links that also contain a sprinkling of media criticism: 

• Democrats this cycle are mostly facing challenges from the conservative side of their party, ahead of tomorrow's all but guaranteed to be extremely low-turnout primary election. 
• Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz is looking to cruise to victory tomorrow, and is doing a little mudslinging on her way there. 
• A new bill by Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Ossé wouldn't get rid of broker fees, but instead shift their responsibility to landlords or whoever hires the broker (as is done in every other sane jurisdiction, see this Hell Gate Podcast episode for more on that). 
• Celebrities want to save a crumbling church. Its congregation of roughly a dozen people says it can better serve the community by developing the site into real estate. 
• After a deadly fire last week, NYC is teaming up with the feds to put e-bike charging stations on NYCHA property. 
• Is Eric Adams's "involuntary hospitalization" push for New York's homeless working? The New York Times dives in from the Bronx. 
• Ensuring your workers and customers breathe clean air while eating delicious coal-fired pizza is making pizza shop owners say "Mamma mia!" (Allegedly). 
• Sure, we won't pay you much, but you'll also have nowhere to live. 
• And finally, we hope everyone had a wonderful Pride weekend: