Transcript: Mayor Adams Participates in Gaggle with Local Colombian Press

October 7, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams: As a former police officer, I don't deal with disorder. I'm going to answer your questions, but if this gets disorderly, I'm going back to my room. I saw enough disorder, I'm not going to see it here.

I want to thank the ambassador and the National Police for their level of thoroughness and the amount of time they gave us to fully understand what the Colombian people are going through. They have shown the level of humanitarian action that we as New Yorkers have shown asylum seekers and migrants. Human beings should not live this way anywhere on our planet.

The Darién Gap is a dangerous reflection of how the migrant crisis is impacting our region. And this crisis isn't properly defined, in my opinion. This should be defined as children, what are we doing for our children? One reporter stated 20 percent of the migrants and asylum seekers are children.

It breaks my heart that in New York City we have reached full capacity and we are placing children in conditions that I would not want to place my child in. And at the Darién Gap, I saw children placed in conditions that no one here would want to place their child.

And so my goal is to use this information and use what the people of Colombia and New York have been doing to have a more humane response to a crisis that's impacting children. This has been an eye opening experience. What I saw in Mexico, the large number of CBOs who are at well beyond capacity. What I saw in Ecuador, CBOs at maximum capacity, and here in Colombia hardworking Colombians, CBOs working to address this issue.

It's time to give them help. We are saying to people that are on this trek, New York City is at capacity. And we're going to renew our calls for a decompression strategy in this region and in New York and United States so one country or one city will not have to carry the burden. This is all of our responsibility.

Question: Your heart is different after Darién Gap, mayor?

Mayor Adams: No, my heart is the same. New York City handled 116,000 migrant and asylum seekers through our system. Not one family had to sleep on the street. We provided them food, clothing, healthcare, mental health services. We incorporate every child in our educational system. We have displayed one of the greatest levels of humanitarian responses like Colombia is doing.

I did not come here with a closed heart, I came here with an open heart and open eyes so I could learn more. I'm proud of what my city has done, and I'm saying we have reached the point where we cannot continue the services. That is unfair to New Yorkers and it's unfair to the asylum seekers.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you told us that you were a police officer. In your experience, do you have any advice for the authorities or maybe for the Colombian and Panama governments to improve the situation there?

Mayor Adams: Yes. From what I learned, and I think your question is a very important question. What I've learned is that some of the migrant and asylum seekers are being forced to carry drugs as they go through the Darién Gap. When you place people in desperate situations, they do desperate things.

We must use a real strategy on how we have a decompression strategy, we must learn from what these countries learned during the drug wars of the past, how this country came together and professionalized their Police Department, professionalized the judicial system. They professionalized how they went after the violence of drugs. That's the same level of dedication we need to use to not allow the situation to destabilize our cities.

I think Colombia is a perfect example how when you properly define a problem you put in place the right professionals to turn it around and it's not disjointed. There was a Colombia plan. We need a migration plan, one blueprint that all of us could be on the same page and respond to accordingly. I've learned a lot from being in this country, and we could learn a lot internationally by going at this problem in a coordinated, organized way. We are not coordinated, we're not organized, and that was extremely alarming and fearful.

Question: Mayor, what do you think is that migration plan that should be done between all of the countries involved, because you were in Ecuador, you were in Mexico, you're here in Colombia, you're going to Panama, I understand. So, what do you think should be that migration plan to stop people going to the United States, mainly people from Venezuela trying to run out of that region?

Mayor Adams: Well, greater minds than mine must come in the room and make the determination. But here's my observation that's clear. We are like an orchestra without a maestro. We may be great at playing our individual instruments, but we're playing off a different sheet music. All of us must get together. We must properly identify why are people fleeing each country and make a determination to individualize our approach to each one.

Then we must combine the efforts of all of the CBOs with all of the actions that are taking place in each country to come up with the plan of execution. Right now that's not in place. If I were to ask you who is the maestro for this entire symphony across our globe, none of us know that.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you seem very affected by what you saw and you heard today the impact of Darién Gap [in] Colombia. Could you talk to us about the conversations you had with some asylum seekers and what you said to them and what they said to you about their journey an struggle, and what you were expressing to them about the next movements.

Mayor Adams: It was our desire to go in and walk along with each area and interact with the asylum seekers that were there. We had two briefings prior, and the National Police did not want us to go to Darién Gap at all on the ground. They only wanted us to fly over. And as a commitment and promise, they stated, if will allow you to go in, much of your personnel is going to have to remain in the car. You must go in, do a quick observation, but you have to get out of the area for security reasons.

They were our hosts. They were responsible for ensuring the safety of my delegation. I was not going to go against what they asked. Commission Castro was able to speak to a family that was there, but we were not permitted to stay any longer. When they told us we had to leave, we had to leave. I was not going to violate the trust that they gave me of going to the scene.

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