New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency to help mitigate what he called the region's migrant crisis, a move that could cost the city $1 billion this fiscal year.
The official said that the city now has a situation where more people are arriving in New York City than authorities can immediately accommodate. This includes families who had babies and young children in tow.
New York City's Migrant Crisis
Adams added that once the asylum seekers arrived from the most recent buses and were provided shelter, the city would surpass the highest number of people in recorded history in the city's shelter system.
The New York City mayor also called for emergency federal and state aid to handle the continued flow of asylum seekers into the region. Adams' emergency declaration will direct all relevant city agencies to coordinate efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis and to construct the city's Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, as per CNN.
The city now has more than 61,000 people housed in its shelter system, which includes thousands who were experiencing homelessness and thousands of asylum seekers who were carried by bus in recent months from other regions of the United States.
Mayor Adams said that more than 17,000 asylum seekers were bused to New York City from the southern border since April of this year alone. Texas, as of the first week of October, spent more than $18 million busing migrants, who have been processed and released by immigration authorities in Texas border communities, to various other states.
According to BBC, an average of five to six buses have been arriving in New York City since September, Adams said during a Friday press conference. He added that one in five people in the city shelter system was an asylum seeker.
The Situation in the Southern Border
Adams also said that the majority of the migrants who were arriving in the city were in need of serious medical care. He noted that the city was doing all it could but argued that officials were reaching the outer limit of their ability to help.
Arizona, Florida, and Texas all announced initiatives to move migrants to Democratic-led states, which they have accused of being "sanctuary" jurisdictions that fail to enforce immigration laws. Lawmakers argued that the tactic sought to mitigate the impact of migration laws in local communities.
Furthermore, officials said that the measure was designed to increase pressure on the Biden administration to do more to reduce the number of people crossing the southern U.S. border, which this year has hit a record high.
Adams argued that the city's social services were "being exploited by others for political gain." However, a spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dismissed the declaration by the New York City mayor on Friday.
The spokesperson, Renae Eze, said that the true emergency was on the country's southern border where small Texas border towns are overrun and overwhelmed by hundreds of migrants every single day.
New York law enforcement conducted checks of the buses coming in bringing migrants in an effort to slow down the flow of asylum seekers. Furthermore, police handed out court appearance forms to drivers of the buses, the New York Post reported.
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