New York Mayor Eric Adams has warned his city is “at capacity” after receiving 120,000 migrants to the city in the past year.
“It’s not sustainable,” Adams said as he traveled to Mexico City on Wednesday in his latest effort to stem the flow of asylum seekers and keep them from coming to the Big Apple.
The city is currently struggling to cope with the massive influx of migrants that has overwhelmed the shelter system and strained financial resources, while hundreds of people in need of housing and employment arrive every day.
Speaking at the foot of a basilica in the city, where people often pray before traveling, Adams said he hoped to “manage the expectations” of migrants traveling.
The mayor’s comments Wednesday night are part of his four-day trip to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to speak with leaders and learn more about the journey asylum seekers take to come to the U.S.
New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks to the press in front of the Basilica de Guadalupe on Wednesday after visiting the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City
Hundreds of migrants sleep early on August 1 in line for placement at the intake center of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York
Migrants pour into New York City and line up to enter the Federal Plaza to file with immigration authorities, October 2
The mayor too egMore and more voices emerged calling for a broader global response to the increasing number of migrants to the US
“The message that this is not sustainable cannot remain within the boundaries of New York City. There is global migration and there needs to be an international response to it.’
In August, U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 apprehensions at the Mexican border, a 37 percent increase from July, but little change from August 2022 and well below the more than 220,000 in December, according to figures released in September.
Before his trip, Adams previously said: “We want to give an honest assessment of what we are experiencing here in this city. We are at capacity.’
“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in a five-star hotel. “It doesn’t mean that just because you come here you’re automatically allowed to work,” he said.
Adams has made a series of urgent pleas for a change in federal immigration policy and funding to help the city manage the arrival of migrants, which he says could cost the city $12 billion as it leases space in hotels, builds new emergency shelters and provides various government services for asylum seekers.
Adams recently moved to tighten New York’s shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding.
The city has also challenged a decades-old legal agreement that requires it to provide shelter to anyone who requests it. On Tuesday, the city asked a judge to allow the rule to be suspended during the state of emergency, during which shelter populations are rapidly increasing.
Migrants arrive in New York City and line up near 60 Center Street to enter Federal Plaza to file with immigration authorities
Eric Adams speaks to the press in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where he tried to discourage migrants from coming to New York City
Asylum seekers line up outside the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City
A view of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families on September 27 in New York City, United States
Asylum seekers line up outside the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City
A group of migrants wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families
A line of asylum seekers lines up outside the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families
City and state leaders in New York, Illinois and elsewhere have urged the federal government to make it easier for migrants to obtain work permits, which would help them pay for food and housing.
It comes after hundreds of migrants arrived aboard a freight train in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday evening.
They got off the train and immediately headed for the border, stopping near coils of barbed wire.
Elizabeth Romero, 32, left Venezuela three months earlier with her husband and 6-year-old son. Three weeks pregnant at the time, she spent her first trimester hiking the jungle-covered border of Colombia and Panama, and most recently spent three days aboard the freight train that took her to the U.S.-Mexico border.
She and her son, who celebrated his sixth birthday this week on top of a boxcar, have had bouts of fever. They left Venezuela because they could not make ends meet financially. Her family stays there.
“We hope that the United States will receive us and give us the support we need,” Romero said. They planned to present themselves to U.S. authorities at the border because they had waited three months without getting an appointment to apply for asylum through CBP One, a mobile app.
The U.S. has tried to get Mexico and countries further south to do more. In April, the US, Panama and Colombia announced a campaign to slow migration through the treacherous Darien Gap, which divides Colombia and Panama. But the migration through the jungle has only accelerated and is expected to reach about 500,000 people this year.
A family from Venezuela awaits treatment by U.S. agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States on September 30
Asylum seekers await processing by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States
Seen from the air, a U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as immigrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico
Elsewhere, it was announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden administration officials will visit Mexico on Wednesday to discuss shared security issues, including mainly the trade in the synthetic opioid fentanyl, but also the arms trade and increasing migration.
The latest round of the High-Level Security Dialogue will see Blinken, US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas join their Mexican counterparts for two days of talks.
Increased migration flows are expected to be discussed as the Biden administration comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and mayors from the president’s own party to do more to slow migrant arrivals.
Blinken was scheduled to discuss migration on Wednesday with Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena and the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama.