New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued a dire forecast for his city as it struggles to accommodate the arrival of over 110,000 migrants in the last year.
Adams said that the problem would eventually destroy New York City and affect every service in the area. Although the federal government is also responsible for relocating migrants from the border to other parts of the U.S., he placed the responsibility on Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s program of busing people from the border to self-declared sanctuary areas.
Abbott has defended Operation Lone Star, saying it fills the “dangerous holes caused by the Biden administration’s failure to protect the border.”
In response to Adams’ criticism, Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s spokesman, stated that he accused President Biden of putting undue strain on state and local governments by secretly transporting planeloads of migrants across the country. Texas will keep busing migrants to sanctuary cities to relieve our overburdened border communities until President Biden does his job.
Given that more than 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since last spring and that the city is currently caring for close to 60,000 of them, Adams also announced the transformation of an emergency respite site into a new Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) at Austell Place in Long Island City. In its first phase, the humanitarian aid center will house up to 330 single males seeking refuge; when fully operational, the institution will accommodate about 1,000 people.
With the extension, the location joins the city’s more than 200 shelter sites as the 16th major humanitarian aid center. On September 3rd, about 59,700 asylum seekers were among the city’s 112,300 residents. Since September 2022, over 10,100 asylum seekers have entered the city via its processing facility. Fifteen humanitarian aid facilities are among the 206 locations established by the town. More than 27,000 new asylum seekers arrived in the city between August 28 and September 3.
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said there are ways out of this crisis, including a federal declaration of emergency, more funding, and a decompression strategy on a national and state level that would help New Yorkers.
