Mayor Adams brushes off criticism of his ‘excellent swimmers’ comment about migrants

NEW YORK (PIX11) – Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday brushed off criticism he’s faced after he suggested migrants could make good lifeguards because they are "excellent swimmers."

Adams made the controversial comment during a news conference Tuesday while answering a question about New York City’s lifeguard shortage. The mayor was advocating for migrants to be able to help fill job openings in the city such as lifeguard positions.

These were Adams’ full comments at Tuesday’s press conference:

“Let me just take your imagination for a moment. If we had a migrant and asylum seeker plan that states those jobs that we are in high demand, we could expedite. How do we have a large body of people that are in our city and country that are excellent swimmers, and at the same time we need lifeguards? The only obstacle is that we won't give them the right to work to become a lifeguard. That just doesn't make sense. If we had a plan that said you have a shortage of food service workers and those who fit the criteria, we're going to expedite you. If you have the experience that you are a nurse, which you have a nursing shortage, and we will expedite you. It's the same with lifeguards. We have all these eligible people waiting to work with the skills we need to fill the jobs, but we're unable to allow them to work because bureaucracy is in the way. That just does not make sense.”

Mayor Eric Adams

Critics claimed that the mayor calling migrants "excellent swimmers" was racist. But during an interview on PIX11 News Wednesday, Adams denied that anything he said in his comments was racist or offensive.

“If I offended someone, I'm not going to interpret someone's pain. If I offended someone, I never want to offend someone. But there was nothing I said that was racist or offensive,” Adams told PIX11 News. “We’re not going to get into the point that every time a sentence is made, the ‘word police’ are going to try to make something offensive about it.”

Adams reiterated his point that migrants could help fill job openings in New York City.

“I have been saying this constantly that we have a shortage of employees and we have able-bodied migrants and asylum seekers who want to do so, including swimming,” Adams said. “Let’s let people work and fill these jobs that we have available. Then we won’t have to close beaches. Why are we closing beaches when we have able-bodied people who want to work in our city?”’

In his interview on PIX11, Adams also discussed public safety concerns over random attacks in New York City, violent incidents at schools, and the FBI and Homeland Security's warning of potential threats to LGBTQ-related events during Pride Month in June.

Watch the mayor’s full interview on PIX11 in the video player.