New York Mayor Eric Adams issued a dire warning on Wednesday when he told the nation that the city will be destroyed by the current migrant crisis — but the Democrat was singing from a very different song sheet just a year ago.
Last August, Adams went to Port Authority to welcome a busload of asylum seekers sent from Texas by Republican Governor Gregg Abbot, who argued that progressive cities should also bear the cost of the influx of asylum seekers crossing the southern border.
The mayor told reporters at the time, “As mayor of New York, I have to provide services to families that are here, and that’s what we’re going to do — our responsibility as a city, and I am proud that this is a Right to Shelter state, and we will continue to do so.”
But the buses kept coming, and a year later Adams is calling for federal and state aid. He is asking a judge to suspend the Right to Shelter policy as the city struggles to find space for the 110,000 asylum seekers who have arrived since spring 2022. .
In May, he made major changes to the 40-year-old “Right to Shelter” law, which guarantees a bed for anyone in need in the city, when his administration called for federal and state aid to deal with the wave of migrants which he now says can destroy New York as we know it.
In August 2022, New York Mayor Eric Adams welcomed migrants and welcomed asylum seekers who had entered from Texas to Port Authority, saying he was proud that New York is a shelter state.
A year later, the mayor warned that the influx of migrants will destroy the city if he does not get federal or state aid
With Executive Order 402, Adams suspended aspects of the law, meaning the city no longer had to provide migrant families with their own room and could instead refer them to communal accommodation.
In July, he told the migrants that there was no more space in the city and that it would be dispersed flyers at the US-Mexico border urging newly arrived migrants to “consider another city.”
It’s a sweeping change for the mayor, who pledged during his campaign that NYC would remain a haven under the Adams administration, saying in 2021, “We need to protect our immigrants.” Period of time.’
But the city still has a legal obligation to provide shelter for those who request it, and Adams has desperately turned to a variety of city landmarks, makeshift shelters and transitional housing as short-term solutions.
There are now nearly 60,000 migrants in the care of the city, and about 21,000 new migrant children will be attending school this year. When the school year started on Thursday, some schools had to turn away students because classrooms were overcrowded.
The migrant crisis has plagued Adams’ time as mayor since he took office in January 2022, and the former police officer warned on Wednesday that the problem is only getting worse.
“We get 10,000 migrants a month,” he said. “Now we are being told that people from all over the world have decided that they will come to New York City through the southern part of the border.”
It’s a sweeping change for the mayor, who pledged during his campaign that New York would remain a haven under the Adams administration.
Thousands of asylum seekers have been bussed into major cities from border states, including Texas, as unprecedented numbers continue to enter the United States
“Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I couldn’t see an end to. I don’t see an end to this,” he admitted. “This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.”
Despite Mayor Adams’ pleas for help from the state and federal governments, the city has not received any aid to cover the additional costs, so the $4.7 billion would come from the city’s budget. That amount is equal to the budgets for the municipal sanitary facilities, fire brigade and parks combined.
Meanwhile, the buses full of migrants continue to arrive, with at least four being unloaded at the Port Authority in just two days.
While officials have not revealed how many hotel rooms are earmarked for migrants, hotel industry experts believe there are as many as 10,000, The City reports.
The Roosevelt Hotel, Paul Hotel, and Paramount Hotel are among the hotels designated for migrant housing in Manhattan.
Long lines of migrants, mostly men from Africa, are now often seen outside the legendary sites.
The migrant crisis in New York City is expected to cost the city $4.7 billion this year. Above is a list of some of the landmarks that have been converted into emergency shelters as officials struggle to house nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s care
Hundreds of refugees slept outside the Roosevelt Hotel in August as the historic establishment was converted into a migrant camp
Many of them never intended to come to New York in the first place, but staying is easy since the city is legally required to provide them with shelter.
“Many of these people arrive here without even knowing where the theft is. Many of them wanted to go to Florida, even with DeSantis there. Others go to Atlanta and California,” said Edinson Calderon, founder of the organization Una Carta Salva Una Vida, which helps asylum seekers after they are released from migrant detention centers.
Calderon told DailyMail.com that migrants from other cities have also taken advantage of the situation and come to the city to avoid paying rent and using shelter.
The US Department of Homeland Security recently sent a small team to New York City to help determine how the federal government should respond.
The federal government has so far promised the city $140 million to help, though the city has not yet received any of that money. A city spokesman later clarified that requests for that money have been made, but that the delay could be due to routine bureaucratic reasons.
New York officials have been sounding the alarm for months about their inability to right the ship, with Adams warning his office estimates the matter will cost the city about $12 billion in just three years.
A bus of Texas migrants arrives at New York’s Port Authority bus station on May 3
He declared a state of emergency in the fall, repeatedly labeling the flood a “humanitarian crisis.” The mayor’s failed requests for more federal funding led him in April to condemn President Biden for “abandoning” the city.
The crisis is also far from limited to New York, as many major metropolitan areas also struggle to accommodate asylum seekers. In Chicago, residents were stunned to discover in May that a police station had been converted into a safe house.
Problems on the southern border escalated significantly when Title 42, a pandemic-era border policy that gave officials advanced powers to detain people, ended in May.
On the day the policy expired on May 12, the number of illegal border crossings topped 10,000 – a figure that was maintained for several days