New York City Councilwoman Alexa Aviles demanded at a budget hearing Tuesday that Mayor Eric Adams restore cuts to immigrant legal and language services, and criticized his administration for relying too heavily on — and paying too much for — for-profit contracts in the city’s response to the asylum seeker crisis.
Aviles, who heads the Council’s Immigration Committee, said the administration must put $150 million to “enhanced” immigrant legal services and add an additional $10 million to “adequately fund” adult education for immigrants.
The hearing — one of several the Council will hold as part of vetting the mayor’s preliminary budget and negotiating a final spending plan — came one day after the Council released a new revenue projection forecasting $3.3 billion more in tax receipts than a projection by Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, a development first reported by the New York Daily News.
