Amid migrant influx, Eric Adams says ‘The city we knew is about to disappear’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed his most dire prediction yet regarding the future of the Big Apple, as it grapples with an influx of over 110,000 migrants.
“Let me share something with you, fellow New Yorkers. Throughout my life, I’ve encountered challenges, but I’ve always seen a way to overcome them. However, in this case, I can’t envision a solution. I genuinely cannot see an end to this. This issue has the potential to devastate New York City,” Adams stated during a Town Hall meeting on the Upper West Side on Wednesday. “We are receiving 10,000 migrants each month.”
“We are already dealing with a $12 billion deficit that we will need to address. Every city service will be impacted, affecting all of us,” Adams continued. “This will extend to your neighborhoods, and it will affect us all. I sounded the alarm last year when we had 15,000 migrants, and now, with 110,000, we are on the verge of losing the city we once knew. We are all in this together.”
Adams blamed Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation to transport migrants across the border to self-proclaimed sanctuary cities. However, it is important to note that the federal government also diverts immigrants from the border to other parts of the United States.
Abbott is a proponent of Operation Lone Star, which aims to address “the dangerous gaps created by the Biden administration’s refusal to secure the border.” He argued that the bus initiative would help ease the pressure on border communities with the large influx of border crossers. On Tuesday, the Texas governor announced that his state government has moved 35,000 immigrants to self-proclaimed sanctuary cities, including more than 13,300 to New York City, starting in August 2022.
“What happened? It started with the Texas governor’s decision to transport people to New York City,” Adams said Wednesday. “One hundred and ten thousand migrants. It is our responsibility to provide them with food, clothing, housing, education for children, laundry services, and all necessary health care. Our team here aims to exhaust all options before integrating them into neighborhoods. Communities. Month by month, it will eventually emphasize that it affects the neighborhood around you.”
“We are not getting any support to deal with this national crisis,” the mayor added. Once, most immigrants to New York City came from Venezuela, the demographics have changed and now more people are coming from Ecuador, he noted. In addition, there is a growing number of Russian-speaking and West African people passing through Mexico to seek asylum in the United States.
“Now people from all over the world decide to cross the southern border and come to New York City,” Adams noted. “Yet everyone is pointing to New York City, this is just our problem. Every community in this city is going to feel the impact.”
Separately, on Wednesday, Adams announced the transition of an emergency response site at Astell Place in Long Island City to a new Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC). The move comes as the number of immigrants in the city’s care has reached 60,000, and 110,000 immigrants have arrived in New York City since last spring.
“As asylum seekers continue to arrive in New York City at an average rate of more than 2,400 each week, conditions on the ground necessitate the city’s transition to a large-scale internment setting for single men,” the mayor’s office explained. In a press release. “The humanitarian aid center will initially shelter 330 single men, with plans to expand to its full capacity, accommodating nearly 1,000 refugees.”
The expansion of the site now ranks the city’s 16th largest humanitarian aid center out of more than 200 shelter sites operated in the city, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom announced at a special news conference Wednesday.
As of Sept. 3, the city is caring for 112,300 people, including more than 59,700 refugees, Williams-Isom said. Since September 2022, more than 10,100 refugees have passed through the city’s intake center. The city has set up a total of 206 sites, including 15 humanitarian assistance centers. Last week, from August 28 to September 3, 27,000 new refugees entered the city’s care.
“Hundreds of refugees continue to arrive in our city on a daily basis and we are struggling to keep up,” Williams-Isom commented. “There are viable solutions to this emergency. We need swift action authority, additional financial support, a federal emergency declaration, and a nationwide and statewide decompression strategy to relieve the tremendous pressure we are facing in New York City. The solutions are available. . . The current situation is not effective and New Yorkers need to take more decisive action.” They want us.”