Eric Adams’s handling of NYC migrant crisis went ‚horribly wrong,‘ contractor reveals

New York City Mayor Eric Adams‘s strategy for managing the thousands of immigrants who have descended on Manhattan has been a disaster, according to a contractor on the project.

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former federal immigration official who joined the Biden-Harris transition team and later brokered more than $2 billion in backdoor deals for migrant shelters and services, confessed during secretly recorded videos that his work putting bus and hotel deals in place has been a nightmare because the city is focused on manipulating the situation for political gain, not helping people.

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„We did a contract with Mayor Adams that went horribly wrong. [It was for] all the buses,“ Lorenzen-Strait said in a series of videos released by conservative nonprofit group Project Veritas Thursday evening.

Lorenzen-Strait ran the city’s migrant hotels for five months and smeared the first-term mayor as insincere and not actually empathetic to the plight of immigrants who have been sleeping on the city’s streets for more than a year after being released from the border and choosing to travel to the sanctuary city.

„So Eric Adams doesn’t care about the migrants?“ the undercover Project Veritas staffer asked.

Lorenzen-Strait hesitated, then said, „Politics first, policy second.“

„Why do you think [Adams is] doing this? I mean, it doesn’t look like it’s helping him politically,“ the Project Veritas employee asked.

„You’ve got to think more generalistic,“ Lorenzen-Strait said. „Rich liberals — when they feel bad about something, they want to give money. … Rich liberals will also say, ‚We should also take care of the migrants. That’s what good people would do.’“

Lorenzen-Strait divulged that he is now negotiating a deal to use 400 dormitory beds at the College of New Rochelle because the city’s attempts to house immigrants in hotels were too difficult and costly.

„I have met with Mayor Adams,“ Lorenzen-Strait said. „Mayor Adams does not want the optics of giving a $1,000 hotel room a night to migrants when he has a homeless crisis and some other housing issues. So he quickly wanted to push them out.“

Lorenzen-Strait lamented the challenges of brokering deals that involved both Albany and NYC.

„I’m going through Albany and the mayor’s office trying to work this out. New York City has better flexibility, but they have got a lot of constituent issues so it’s all about shifting the optics,“ he said. „The city is willing to pay for it; they’ve got to go through Albany contractors. … So from New York, it was a group called SLS CO, which is knee-deep into contributions to Mayor Adams‘ campaign. Inept, incompetent, but that’s this game.“

The Gothamist reported in November 2022 that SLS CO LLC had donated to Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who has provided coach buses to transport immigrants from the Texas border to cities including New York. The Gothamist faulted SLS CO of having a conflict of interest by contributing to Abbott, but the new accusation against Adams would mean the Democrat is providing large contracts to a possible donor.

Adams’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Lorenzen-Strait also said he has pulled political strings of his own, trying to win his clients more business.

„Last week, I had to get the deputy chief of staff to the governor of Massachusetts on the line because I got this contract in a very Washington way. It was total luck and by chance,“ he said, without clarifying which New York contract he was talking about.

„Or was it a little bit of greasing the palms?“ the Project Veritas representative asked.

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„No, it was —no. Well, kind of,“ Lorenzen-Strait said. „I think the Washington way is the way of London and Rome. It’s about understanding that if you want to do good policy and good programs, that is secondary to politics.“

Asked again if Adams cared about the thousands of immigrants on his streets, Lorenzen-Strait said, „Politics first, policy second.“

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