New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency Friday as illegal migrants continue to arrive from the border.
Over 17,000 migrants have arrived in NYC on buses this year. Adams noted that one in five people in the city’s shelter system is a migrant.
“This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America, and it’s being accelerated by American political dynamics,” he said.
“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,” Adams explained.
“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,” he added.
Adams declared the state of emergency and noted that the influx of migrants will cost taxpayers $1 billion for housing and social services.
In addition, he announced that a “large Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center” will be opened on Randall’s Island to house hundreds of people.
“There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers,” the mayor said.
“This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up. There is no playbook for this, no precedent,” he continued.
The city will be announcing a partnership in which New Yorkers can “host asylum seekers and the unhoused.”
“Because, despite all the bad faith that has caused this crisis and made it worse, New Yorkers have always looked out for our immigrant brothers and sisters. We see ourselves in them. We see our ancestors in them,” Adams said.
He also called on the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser, to stop sending busloads of migrants.
“El Paso, the city manager, the mayor, they should stop sending buses to New York,” he said. “There was never an agreement for El Paso to send asylum seekers here.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded to Adams’ comments by saying that migrants will continue to be bused to other states until the border crisis is fixed.
“Sanctuary cities like New York City experience a FRACTION of what Texas border communities face every day,” he said.
“We’ll continue busing migrants to NYC, DC, & Chicago to relieve our overwhelmed border towns until Biden does his job to secure the border,” Abbott added.
Adams has asked the White House for $500 million in emergency aid and called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to provide additional aid.