NYC Mayor Eric Adams has declared a state of emergency as a response to the city’s growing migrant crisis, reports the New York Times.
At a press conference held at the City Hall Blue Room on Friday, Adams said the massive influx of migrants will cost the city around $1 billion this fiscal year.
“We now have a situation where more people are arriving in New York City than we can immediately accommodate, including families with babies and young children,” he said. “Once the asylum seekers from today’s buses are provided shelter, we would surpass the highest number of people in recorded history in our city’s shelter system.”
Adams said that the 61,000 people who are now in the city's shelter system is "straining our ability to care for New Yorkers in need." Additionally, 5,500 migrant children have enrolled in New York City schools
"Although our compassion is limitless, our resources are not," he continued. "This is unsustainable."
To deal with the crisis, Adams has appealed to the private sector for donations, religious groups to adopt shelters and offer assistance, and hotels for temporary housing.
Of the 61,000 migrants in shelters throughout the city, 20,000 are children and one in five is an asylum-seeker. Since the crisis began in September, five or six buses arrive in the city daily with over 17,000 asylum seekers.
Adams added that the situation with asylum seekers "should be handled at the border," but does not see Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a political ally in the matter.
"He's untrustworthy," Adams said.
Adams called for a national strategy to spread asylum seekers to various cities in the country.
A representative from New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office said that she “remains concerned about the safety and well-being of asylum seekers” and that the state would “continue to coordinate closely with the city on the immediate response and support their requests for federal assistance.”
Last Friday, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that the migrant situation stems from “failing authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba," accusing Republican governors of using asylum seekers as "political pawns."
"We will continue to do everything we can to support cities as some Republican governors intentionally create chaos and confusion with their cruel political stunts," the statement read.
