By JR Holguin

A recent and unexpected surge of migrants that began as early as May has arrived in New York City, causing a swell of people staying in NYC shelters. In a briefing, Mayor Adams addressed the current wave of nearly 3,000 newly arrived migrants. Mayor Adams, Department of Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins, and other officials address the surge asking the Federal Government for assistance in the matter.

“We have organizations throughout this city that have stepped up and stated they want to help,” said Mayor Adams. “We will continue to meet that challenge, but we do need help from the federal government through FEMA to assist us.”

Adams could not provide the amount of money they needed during this surge but did state that, at the moment, his administration is currently using emergency funds to assist those newly arrived asylum seekers.

But meeting that challenge has indeed been difficult for Adams’ administration. With an already overburdened shelter system, Adams’ administration failed to house four migrant families seeking shelter by the required time. The administration came under fire for poor handling of the situation when word began to circulate that the families had no place to stay for 24 hours.

“Four families did not meet the deadline that’s required by law, [that is] not acceptable,” said Mayor Adams. “As the commissioner stated, they were not there for 24 hours. They immediately moved to address the issue.”

The increase of migrant families arriving in New York City has many stumped and have no definite answer about where they are coming from. Mayor Adams went as far as to say that these migrants were part of the wave of bused asylum seekers that had arrived at the Arizona and Texas-Mexico border.

Since April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been sending buses full of asylum seekers to Washington, DC. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey followed the example and joined Abbott in May. Buses full of migrants continue to arrive to this day. They come so frequently that D.C. has been feeling the toll.

Governor Abbott released a statement blaming President Biden, saying, “Texas has not bussed any migrants to New York. Instead, it’s President Biden who has flown planeloads of migrants to New York. Mayor Adam should address his frustration with migrants to the root cause: Joe Biden.”

Despite the overburdened shelters, the backlash for handling the four families that were not processed by the required times, what many would call a humanitarian crisis, and dealing with the current housing crisis, the Adams administration has not let up.

They continue to say that they are proud of their work during this time. Adams believes this city should be commended that they are not Texas or Arizona, sending asylum seekers to other states. While migrants are sent away, New York City embraces them with open arms and will “provide them with what they need and stabilize their lives.”

“We do not become callous and send people away that are looking for help,” said Adams. “All of us came from somewhere, even [those] from Texas, they came from somewhere. And so, they should not have sent people away that was seeking refuge.”

  asylum, asylum seekers, NYC