New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on the Biden administration to crackdown on the border crisis as he declares a state of emergency in the Big Apple.
Adams condemned the busing programs spearheaded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, which has brought about 17,000 migrants to the Big Apple.
The mayor said about five to six busses are arriving every day since September, with nine buses arriving yesterday and eight on Friday.
Since April, New York has set up 42 emergency shelters, enrolled 5,500 children in public school and tried to help the asylum seekers connect with family and resources.
But Adams warned that the city could ultimately see 100,000 new migrants arrive by the end of the year, which will take its toll on New York’s budget.
‘We expect to spend at least $1billion by the end of the fiscal year on this crisis, all because we have a functional, a compassionate system,’ Adams said.
It comes as the mayor scrapped plans to house migrants inside a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship in State Island because it was too expensive and the city is seeking a ‘cheaper option.’
The mayor called on the federal government to tighten border control, provide funds to cities overburdened by the influx of migrants, and to get other cities to accept the immigrants.
‘We need a realistic decompression strategy at the border that will slow the outflow of asylum seekers. Adams said. ‘We need a coordinated effort to move asylum seekers to other cities in this country to ensure everyone is doing their part.’
NYC Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency as he expects the city to spend $1billion on migrants being bused from the US-Mexico border
He issued emergency orders to expedite the building of ‘tent cities’ to house the 17,000 arriving migrants like the newest one built in Randalls Island (pictured)
Five to six buses full of migrants have arrived daily since September (above), with eight buses arriving on Thursday and nine on Friday
Adams ultimately urged for the Biden administration to crack down on the border crisis, and take control of the busing programs to deliver migrants to other cities
The mayor noted that the city’s shelters were already near 100 percent capacity, with about 61,000 people in the system, 20,000 of which are children.
‘Although our compassion is limitless, our resources are not,’ Adams said. ‘This is unsustainable.’
Adams appealed to hotels and nonprofits for temporary housing of the new migrants, and urged the private sector for donations to help the strained city.
Despite the city’s latest construction of a ‘tent city’ in Randalls Island to house the influx of migrants, the mayor used emergency powers to call on the city’s departments to expedite construction of additional ‘Humanitarian Relief Centers.’
‘Unless we take immediate action that [Randalls Island] center will be full in days,’ the Adams warned. ‘And we will have to open another, and another, and another, even as winter arrives.’
Previously, Adams and his team were close to closing a deal with Norwegian Cruise Lines to dock one of their ships off Staten Island, but it fell through because NCL was charging too much, The New York Post reported.
‘They’re probably least likely because we got better deals,’ City Hall chief of staff Frank Carone told the Post.
Carone noted that deals were still being discussed with Carnival Cruise Line and the Estonian company Tallink & Silja, which has ships in the Ukraine housing refugees.
Adams also claimed that if officials in Texas and Arizona, where the majority of migrants are being bussed from, had first reached out to New York to coordinate a plan, then the city would’ve been able to allocate a budget to help the migrants.
‘But we didn’t get the support and information we asked for, and now, New York City is being forced to bare far more than its share of this national crisis.’
‘Our right to shelter laws, our social services, and our values are being exploited by others for political gain,’ the mayor added, criticizing the current busing program.
Adam’s speech served as a condemnation of the border crisis across-party lines, as it was revealed that Democrat-led El Paso was sending more than twice as many migrants as Abbott.
Venezuelan Frederick Pinango, 28, walks with his three-year-old daughter Freyderlinck and his wife Julianis Contreras, 23, on October 3 to board their bus to New York at the Migrant Welcome Center managed by the city of El Paso and the Office of Emergency Management
Roughly 7,000 asylum-seeking migrants were sent from El Paso to New York since late August. Pictured: Migrants waiting in line at El Paso’s Migrant Welcome Center
El Paso, which sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico, has bused roughly 7,000 migrants to New York City since late August and sent more than 1,800 to Chicago, a city-run effort that far exceeds the more ad-hoc transportation of the past.
Abbott has bused more than 3,000 migrants to New York City and more than 900 to Chicago as part of a high-profile campaign to put a spotlight on the record crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Texas and Arizona combined have also bused over 10,000 migrants to Washington, D.C.
However, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, said the city’s program is ‘completely different’ than the other busing efforts and that they seek to ‘treat people with respect.’
The city’s busing effort has received less attention than Abbott’s program, who is seeking a third term in Nov. 8 midterm elections.
But unlike previous speeches where Adams went directly after Abbott, the Democrat mayor did not mention political parties on Friday, instead referring to the border states as a whole.
New York City mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart previously said that while El Paso does coordinate with the city to some degree, New York is not told how many migrants are on board.
El Paso’s busing policy is not wholly popular among its own officials.
DailyMail.com visited El Paso to see the immigration crisis first hand. The helps more than 500 migrants every day board buses to New York and Chicago and assists with travel plans elsewhere across the U.S.
Migrants await their free bus rides north at El Paso’s ‘welcome center’. Many of the new arrivals have fled flawed leftist regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua
Victor Manjarrez, a former CBP chief for the region who now heads a department at The University of Texas at El Paso, says Democrats and Republicans were playing a game of ‘political theater’.
By busing migrants north, El Paso officials were ‘doing the same thing’ as governors Abbott and Ducey, only ‘it’s just not getting the same type of attention,’ Manjarrez told DailyMail.com.
Others say the migrant surge has overstretched a city of nearly 700,000 and that while FEMA has reimbursed some of the costs, there is no guarantee the agency will continue to pay. City officials warn that services could be cut.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus also condemned the busing policies by Democrats and Republicans alike.
The border chief told the Los Angeles Times that the widely publicized busing programs have now become a beacon for more migrants to flood the border seeking to be bused to other parts of the country.
‘It’s safe to say what’s going on is a pull factor, which is somewhat ironic given the criticism from some of these same governors involved in this about various pull factors that they claim already exist,’ Magnus said about Abbott, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
U.S. border guards are grappling with a surge of migrants crossing from Mexico. Authorities stopped migrants 2.15 million times from October through August, the first time the figure was above 2 million during the government’s fiscal year. August is the latest month for which data are available
Joe Biden’s presidency could easily end with seven million or more new migrants in America – a population larger than the size of Los Angeles and Chicago combined. August is the latest month for which data are available