New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) requested aid from New York state to help the city shelter hundreds of asylum-seekers who have arrived there.
“We are at our breaking point,” Adams said in a statement. “Based off our projections, we anticipate being unable to continue sheltering arriving asylum seekers on our own and have submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the State of New York beginning this weekend.”
He said he recognized that a mutual aid request is reserved for “dire emergencies” but that the city has been pushed “to the brink” by the arrival of thousands of migrants.
Adams said that the initial request is for the state to provide support to house 500 asylum-seekers but that the estimate will rise as additional migrants come to the city.
New York City has received an influx of migrants in recent months, with Adams saying last week alone saw the arrival of more than 3,100 asylum-seekers in the city.
The influx comes as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) have sent migrants by bus and airplane to northern, Democratic-run cities such as New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) also transported migrants to such cities while serving in the state’s top office.
The Republican governors have argued that sending the migrants to other jurisdictions relieves border communities they say are overwhelmed due to President Biden’s immigration policies. But opponents have slammed them for their actions, saying that they are using the migrants for political stunts.
Colorado also sent some migrants to New York and Chicago, but Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced Sunday that the state would stop doing so following a request from the cities’ mayors.
Adams said New York City has provided more than 40,000 asylum-seekers with shelter, food and connections to resources since last spring. He said the city has opened 74 emergency shelters and four humanitarian relief centers at “breakneck speeds.”
But he said the city has averaged more than 400 migrants arriving per day over the past week and saw a record 835 arrive in just one day.
Adams previously called for federal assistance to help handle migrants bused in from Texas in August and accused Abbott of using “innocent people as political pawns.”
“The absence of sorely needed federal immigration reform should not mean that this humanitarian crisis falls only on the shoulders of cities,” Adams said Friday. “We need support and aid from our federal and state partners and look forward to working together to meet this crisis head-on.”