New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) declared this week that the city anticipated the arrival of a number of buses of migrants. His comments come as the city struggles under the weight of the almost 100,000 migrants who have arrived since last year.
Adams stated that the city struggled under the arrival of “hundreds” of asylum seekers each day. He said that the current situation is “stretching our system to its breaking point and beyond, it has become more and more of a Herculean effort to find enough beds every night.”
He further said that New York City has taken the lead in the state in attempting to solve the current crisis.
In addition, New York officials announced that the city anticipated the arrival of eight new buses of migrants this week.
New York has expanded a number of shelters for the migrants, including former school buildings. The city has also rented a large number of hotel rooms for the wave of illegal immigrants.
The mayor announced this week that the city would open part of Randall’s Island for housing migrants in a tent city.
Last week, the mayor said that the city had “run out of room.”
Adams added that due to the lack of indoor space, New York had to “localize the inevitable.”
“We have to localize this madness,” he said. Adams cited cases of hundreds of migrants sleeping along the city’s sidewalks and individuals sleeping in cooling vans.
.@DanielDiMartino asks migrants outside the Roosevelt Hotel: “Why New York City?” Their responses varied but had a common thread: in New York City, they could get housing at no cost. https://t.co/27oKFBidwD
— City Journal (@CityJournal) August 8, 2023
“We have to localize this madness. We have to figure out a way of how we don’t have what’s in other municipalities where you have tent cities all over the city,” he said.
Furthermore, the mayor warned of skyrocketing costs in connection with the current situation. He requested aid from the Biden administration to handle the migrant crisis.
Part of the increased cost, beyond immediate food and shelter, is the large influx of young people who would enter New York City’s schools. This includes the cost of English as a Second Language instructors.
He also stated that it was “the job of the people of the city of New York” to contribute toward solving the issue.
