Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on Radio Vision Cristiana

October 25, 2023

Dr. Jose Martínez: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: We are on and we bless everyone who is in tune to Radio Visión Cristiana International. Like I had said before, we are honored to have the honorable Mayor of the City of New York, The Honorable Eric L. Adams here with us, and also our representation of the executive board in the person of Honorable Dr. Kittim Silva and The Honorable Dr. [inaudible].

Martínez: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: The bible says that every authority is established by God, and it calls on to be submissive to that authority and recognize and respect all authority. We have to say that The Honorable Mayor Eric L. Adams, when he was a candidate he partook with us in this cabinet, and today that he is the mayor he returns again to this cabinet with the authority given by God. Welcome, Honorable Mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Muchas gracias.

I believe you opened us with the right thought. I am mayor because God gave me the authority to be mayor, and he placed in the hearts of the voters to give me that authority. Sometimes we miss how God operates, but I am clear when I receive my blessings from God.

And one of the most significant blessings I received was meeting you brothers and sisters of this amazing organization and believers in God. So, I feel like Joseph returning home.

Bishop Dr. Kittim Silva: Mr. Mayor, welcome to Radio Visión Cristiana. We'll switch to Spanish. [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: And it pleases us that you are the 110th mayor, and I remember that The Honorable David Dinkins was the mayor, the 106th mayor of the City of New York. And the first day that God gave me the privilege to know you, Mr. Mayor, through the organization that we are all part of as [UCAP]. And [UCAP] is not only with the Hispanic bishops but also the African American bishops.

Brown and Black bishops, we got together. And we believed that you can be the mayor of this great city. We have admired your humbleness and the service that you have given our city not only in the New York City NYPD coming to the rank of captain, and establishing 100 police officers that were watching for things to be [inaudible] correct.

And his testimony as a young man now was mistreated by the police department but he was taught by a praying mother, and in order for him, and he did not turn that into a sour experience. And he says, I'm going to be part of the NYPD to make the NYPD better.

And he was in the senate as well, and the council and the presidency of the borough of Brooklyn. And today he is currently the 110th mayor of the City of New York. In the name of Radio Visión Cristiana International and all the radio [inaudible] we want to say thank you and welcome, because you have been a man of honor.

You have put in very key positions those who have been classified as people of color. You have put Hispanics and Latinos in key positions. And to have Bishop Ismael Claudio, it has been a blessing to all of our lives. To have Ingrid, which is a lioness, and we call her the Lioness of City Hall. She is an extraordinary woman.

We are giving you the warm welcome in Visión Cristiana we are identifying and we keep identifying to that next term that's coming on its way, because in two years, you have done great labor. We were examining the record of everything that you have done, the legislation that you have signed and the over 118,000 that our churches have grown, especially those of Hispanic [inaudible]. Thank you to those immigrants that we have been able to reach them as well.

We are with you. We will pray for you. And our president, Dr. Jose Martínez and myself as vice president and we are bishops that… The ones that are sitting around this roundtable, we are going to support you always. Please count on us.

Mayor Adams: That's a powerful testament, and I want to just thank you as the president and vice president. But as men of God, because when you look at what we promised, we lived up to it. We promised we would bring down crime, we have done that. We promised we will make sure we diversify our administration.

We have done that: first Dominican to be a deputy mayor; first Puerto Rican to be a police commissioner; first Puerto Rican to head the Department of Correction And when you look at the first Dreamer to be in charge of Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, when you look at our administration, it represents the diversity of the city.

And we have made it clear, we put God first. Even when people criticize me, I still call on God. Because God made me and God will sustain me. And we want to continue to embrace the church as we deal with some serious issues that we have and that we are facing. One of the biggest issues we have is the migrant issue, over 135,000 people, and we have to take care of all of their needs because the federal government is not allowing them to work. And they want to work.

They don't want anything free from New York. All they ask is to work. So, I want to dispel four rumors or misinformation. The first misinformation that we are hearing is that it is the mayor's ability to allow people to come into the city, and that is not. The mayor has no authority to tell anyone to come in or leave the city. It's totally up to the federal government.

The second misinformation is that the migrants are getting things that everyday New Yorkers are not getting. That is untrue. Migrants are living in tents on cots. They are getting basic services. They are not permitted to going in to the supplemented housing that everyday New Yorkers are allowed.

The third misinformation is that we are not allowing them to go to other places. We have asked every arrival did they want to go to another city. We are not allowed by law to deport or force anyone to go anywhere. We can only ask, and many people want to be in New York City because of the diversity of our city.

And the last — and I believe the most important — piece of misinformation is our unwillingness to have the church play a role in this. I believe the way forward is to turn this over to the church to give the church the money they need. We would get a better return on our tax dollars if the church and other faith institutions were doing this.

In South America, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia that is who's handling the problem for the most part. And we want to have government get out of the way and allow the faith institutions to handle this problem. But we can't do it without giving them the money they need, and that's my goal.

Bishop Dr. Ismael Claudio: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: I want to join in the welcoming words to our beloved mayor. We salute you, when we hear about the history of what he's done and what he's doing, I believe that our people need to be appreciative. And nobody can change what we have [inaudible]. A lot of people might want and desire to have, but when I have something in my hand that is functioning that we are seeing that is bringing results, that we are seeing it, that is working for every ethnic group, we have to say we are going to stay with the mayor that we have.

For Radio Visión Cristiana, It is a privilege to have you hear with us. And one of the things that I love about the mayor, and I thank the president for this opportunity: that my yes is yes and my no is no. It is something that is biblical. Recognizing that God has given us the authority, it is the principle that maintains us. And I know that God is going to bless you.

And to think precisely like you're thinking, I have to say with all of my heart, God is guiding you. God continue to guide you. God continues blessing you directly. Thank you for being here with us. Honorable mayor, what is hindering that that money that the church needs to help with the immigration crisis, it can be feasible and accessible, what do you need from us?

Mayor Adams: Thank you, that's a great question. There are several items that the migrant and asylum seekers need. The largest cost is housing. If we could allow our houses of worship to house migrants in their various space that they have available, it would have a major impact on the cost. So, if you have a large parking lot and you're willing to put up a tent, we could pay you for the space. If you have a fellowship hall that you want to temporarily use as a dormitory, we can pay you for the space.

We are seeing that some of the old rules on the books are getting in the way of doing that, and that is what we're trying to get away from. But there are things we can do now that we're calling on the church to do. Purchasing food service from our houses of worship. We have to clean clothing and sheets and other items. Houses of worship could get those contracts.

So, there are other ancillary things that houses of worship can provide. And so Pastor Monrose is creating a way for the houses of worship to come in and get some of the funding to do this, because we're talking about spending $5 billion, and we'd rather that money be spent in our houses of worship than corporations outside.

Silva: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Honorable mayor, I have a couple of edifices in Brooklyn, New York. One is in 159 Jamaica Avenue. For many years it had a rehabilitation program that was Door to Life. We had 18 residents that were fighting substance abuse. We ran it for more than 25 years. We offered it to the city that they may use it to the immigrants.

And when they sent the inspectors, if you don't put [in] a sprinkling system you can't qualify. I have a big place. I also offered that place, and they said you don't qualify. I am one of 100 ministers that they have offered to help, especially a 30 group of immigrants that come to my church to worship that I can put there, 15 of them. I have the personnel with them for them to work. But they don't qualify because the codes of the building housing says that we need a sprinkler system that is going to cost $40,000.

I said if you put it, put it in the contract, from five to 10 years, I don't know if I'm going to be around or alive then, but that's going to maintain there.

Mayor Adams: And that is exactly what we are trying to see how do we adjust the rules. Because we had a lot of faith leaders who had locations that we were told at first if you use fire marshals, you can get past the sprinkler systems. But then we were told differently, that that was only a temporary fix. So, we're looking with our lawyers if we can use fire marshals as a permanent fix. That would help us greatly. And that's our largest cost. Instead of paying a hotel we would rather pay a motel Jesus.

Silva: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Honorable mayor, that was just from the Department of Labor of New York that we have surpassed the number of employments, and this has been done two years into your governorship. And we are elated to hear that, and I believe that you said we have more employment than some cities have residents. Can you please speak to that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. We were able to bring back over a million jobs to our city since the pandemic. We have more jobs now in the City of New York than we've ever had in the city's history. And our goal now is to continue to expand and make sure unemployment under people of color has decreased to record levels.

But we did not reach this success by accident. We had a plan we called the triangle plan: we invest public space, invest in people — working people — and invest in public safety. And we invested in working people. We have settled over 85 percent of our union contracts. No one thought it was possible, but we did it, because we know working people must be able to afford to live in cities.

And then we continued to tell private industries to pay a workable and good wage, and we won victories for our working people in private industries. And then, as I stated, we made the city safer: decreased homicides, decreased shootings and brought down five of the seven major violent crimes and we removed over 12,000 illegal guns off our streets.

And so with the combination of public safety, investing in working people and creating open safe spaces, our city has recovered, and we're going to continue to recover.

Martínez: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Honorable mayor, thank you. It's been an honor to have you with us again. And you know that this is your house and we are your brothers. And the time has expired, but these microphones always are at your disposal. Nine radio stations and they are listening to the plays of mango in the Dominican Republic.

Silva: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Honorable mayor, from our family, you are ours and we are one here.

Mayor Adams: Gracias. Muchas gracias. And you have lifted me up in prayer when I was running, and I feel your prayers now that I'm governing. Let God continue to bless us.