The mayor stated that about 17,000 noncitizens have arrived in New York City and the city’s housing facilities are nearing full capacity. He added that one-fifth of the individuals currently in the city’s shelters are noncitizens and NYC will spend $1 billion on the “crisis” before the end of the fiscal year.
“Our right-to-shelter laws, our social services, and our values are being exploited by others for political gain. New Yorkers are angry. I am angry too,” Adams said in a news conference on Friday.
“We have not asked for this. There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up. There’s no playbook for this, no precedent.”
In a statement to The Texan on Monday, Renae Eze, Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary, called Adams “an absolute hypocrite” and pointed out that the few thousand noncitizens Texas has sent to New York City does not even equate to one percent of its population.
“The true emergency is on our nation’s southern border where small Texas border towns are overrun and overwhelmed by hundreds of migrants every single day as the Biden Administration dumps them in their communities,” Eze said.
“Instead of fearmongering and complaining about a few thousand migrants in his sanctuary city, Mayor Adams should call on President Biden to do his job and secure the border — something the President continues failing to do. Governor Abbott’s invitation is still open for Mayor Adams to visit the border and see the actual crisis firsthand.”
Abbott launched a program in April whereby illegal immigrants can volunteer to be bused out of state if they have been provided paperwork by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that gives them temporary permission to be in the country.
The governor’s office indicated in a press release on Friday that Texas has transported 8,100 noncitizens to Washington, D.C. and 3,100 to New York City. Another 920 have been sent to Chicago.
The City of El Paso has also been busing noncitizens to New York City and elsewhere across the country due to its inability to provide for the thousands of illegal immigrants arriving in the El Paso area.
At the Texas Capitol in April, Abbott commented in response to a question by The Texan that the State of Texas will send as many noncitizens to the U.S. capital as it can.
“We will transport as many as possible. The president has not ever come to the border of Texas and has seen the chaos that he has caused and if he’s not going to come to the border, we’re going to take the border to him,” Abbott said at the time.
Months later, he added New York City and Chicago to the list of destinations, citing their sanctuary city policies.
Last week, Adams contended that while New York City seeks to welcome immigrants, it does not have the infrastructure or resources to accommodate so many at once.
“New York City has helped them all, but extending that care has come at a great cost to our city and our people. The asylum seekers that are arriving here need more than a hot meal or a bed for a night,” Adams said.
“Without the ability to work legally in this country, they need long-term shelter, healthcare, and a great deal of institutional support. It is straining our ability to provide care for New Yorkers in need and it is burning through our city’s budget.”
Abbott and other opponents of President Biden’s policies have been highlighting the economic strain of illegal immigration since the president took office.
In September 2021, about 30,000 illegal aliens from Haiti and other countries converged on Del Rio, which required emergency federal assistance and prompted Democratic Mayor Bruno Lozano to repeat his calls for the federal government to do more to deter illegal immigration. Del Rio has a population of about 36,000 residents.
There were more than 2.2 million encounters with illegal immigrants in Fiscal Year 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a senior reporter for The Texan and a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State. He has coached competitive speech and debate and has been involved in politics since a young age. One of Hayden's favorite quotes is by Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."
