Mayor Eric Adams issued his most dire warning yet about the consequences of the migrant crisis in the Big Apple on Wednesday, telling New Yorkers that the ongoing influx “will destroy New York City.”
New York City has received more than 100,000 illegal immigrants since the spring, when border states began busing migrants to blue “sanctuary cities” which have committed to providing shelter and social services to all individuals regardless of immigration status. At a town hall meeting in Manhattan, Adams said New York City is receiving 10,000 migrants per month.
“Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” said Adams. “Now we’re getting people from all over the globe [who] have made their minds up that they’re going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City.”
In the video, Adams told the public the immigration crisis will cost $12 billion by July 2025 if migrants continue pouring into the city.
In January, Adams said he wouldn’t drop the city’s sanctuary status despite admitting there is “no more room” for incoming migrants. He said the same in May and has changed city policy to provide more housing in order to address the crisis.
Since then, Adams has ramped up his criticisms of the Biden administration’s lax border enforcement and Albany’s lack of assistance. Last week, Adams called out Democratic governor Kathy Hochul for refusing to intervene in the city’s dispute with upstate counties, which are suing to stop the city from busing migrants to hotels in their jurisdictions. Adams has yet to roll back New York City’s sanctuary status, which guarantees shelter and social services for all migrants.
Also last week, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy refused to accept New York City migrants after the Biden administration teased the idea. Murphy said he couldn’t see the possibility of making New Jersey a sanctuary state, despite promising the opposite during his gubernatorial campaign.
In an official statement from his office on Wednesday, Adams announced the expansion of an emergency respite site into a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center in Long Island City. This move comes as about 60,000 asylum seekers are currently in New York City’s care, with over 110,000 arriving in the city since spring 2022.
“As asylum seekers have continued to arrive in New York City at an average rate of more than 2,400 every week, conditions on the ground required that the city transition the site to a large-scale congregate setting for single men,” the statement read. “The humanitarian relief center will start by providing shelter for up to 330 single men, but, once expanded to full capacity, the site will host a total of almost 1,000 asylum seekers.”
Anne Williams-Isom, the New York City deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, also revealed the dire situation the city finds itself in at a separate Wednesday news conference.
“As of September 3rd, we have over 112,300 people in our care including over 59,700 asylum seekers. Over 10,100 asylum seekers have come through our intake center since September of 2022,” Williams-Isom told reporters. “We have opened 206 sites including 15 humanitarian relief centers, including Austell Place, which we transitioned to a HERRC. And last week from August 28th to September 3rd, more than 27,000 new asylum seekers entered our care.”