NYC Mayor Eric Adams says migrants could fill lifeguard shortage because they are 'excellent swimmers'

Mayor Eric Adams has suggested migrants could be used to plug lifeguard shortages because they are 'excellent swimmers'.

The New York City leader said the deficit could be solved if work permits for migrants could be expedited.

'How do we have a large body of people in our city that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need lifeguards,' Adams said at a City Hall briefing on Tuesday.

'And the only obstacle is that we won't give them the right to work to become a lifeguard. That just doesn't make sense.' 

Historic shortages last summer have already seen the Big Apple's Parks Department increase wages in a bid to boost recruitment.

Mayor Eric Adams has suggested migrants could be used to plug lifeguard shortages because they are 'excellent swimmers'

The New York City leader said the deficit could be solved if work permits for migrants could be expedited. Pictured: Honduran migrants heading to thee US, await for fellow migrants to jump from the Guatemala-Mexico international border bridge into the Suchiate river in 2018

More than 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York since Spring of 2022. Pictured: Recently arrived migrants get on a bus outside Floyd Bennett Field shelter on February 21, 2024 

More than 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York since Spring of 2022, many making perilous journeys across bodies of water such as the Rio Grande river before traveling north.

However, Adams insisted it is not just much-needed lifeguard vacancies that could be filled by granting migrants the right to work.

'If we had a migrant and asylum seeker plan that states those jobs that we are in high demand we could expedite,' Adams said.

'If we had a plan that said, "If there was a shortage of food service workers and those who fit that criteria, we're going to expedite you," if you have experience that you are a nurse and we have nursing shortage, we would expedite you.'

New York City's beaches are set to open on Memorial Day weekend. 

Last year, the season opened with around 500 lifeguard vacancies unfilled leading to partial closures in parts.

This year, the base rate of pay has been increase to $22, with an $1,000 bonus for any lifeguards who work through the peak season.

'We have all these eligible people waiting to work with the skills we need to fill the jobs but we are unable to allow them to work because bureaucracy is in the way,' Adams added.

Adams insisted it is not just much-needed lifeguard vacancies that could be filled by granting migrants the right to work

He suggested qualified migrants could fill nursing roles as well as fast food worker positions. Pictured: Migrants swim across the Rio Grande as they try to enter the United States March 10, 2023

Adams recently suggested that New York should overhaul its sanctuary city status. Pictured: Migrant family arriving at a Manhattan shelter on March 26, 2024

New York has been designated a sanctuary city for the last few years, however Adams recently called for a radical overhaul of this designation as the city buckles under the strain of migrant arrivals.

He was accused of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on no-bid contracts that pay for-profit companies 'exorbitant rates' to manage emergency shelters for asylum-seeking migrants.