On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) claimed that illegal aliens could be used to fill the city’s lifeguard shortage because they are “excellent swimmers.”
According to the New York Post, Adams made the remark in a City Hall briefing about lifeguard staffing at the city’s beaches and pools. Reportedly, there have been staffing issues in recent years (via NYP):
Going off on a tangent, Adams indicated that Gotham’s lifeguard shortages could easily be fixed if migrant work visas were being expedited for those jobs that needed to be filled quickly.
“How do we have a large body of people that are in our city, our country, that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need lifeguards — and the only obstacle is that we won’t give them the right to work to become a lifeguard,” the mayor said.
“That just doesn’t make sense.”
Mayor Adams says illegal aliens could be used to fill New York City's lifeguard shortage because they are "excellent swimmers." pic.twitter.com/IXDJNADnPY
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 14, 2024
In his remarks, Adams was seemingly alluding to the fact that many illegal immigrants cross the Rio Grande separating Texas and Mexico.
“We have all these eligible people waiting to work, with the skills we need to do the jobs, but we are unable to allow them to work because bureaucracy is in the way,” Adams added.
In a statement to the Post, a City Hall representative said, “[Adams has] repeatedly made the point that there are people who are qualified for jobs where we have vacancies, they are prepared to do the job, and yet the federal government continues to deny them the legal right to work.”
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, there are at least 173,000 recent illegal immigrants who’ve moved to the Big Apple. New York City is budgeting around $12 billion to provide for them.