New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) officially declared a state of emergency on Friday over the number of processed and released migrants arriving to the city by bus amid the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Adams said the state of emergency declaration will better allow the city to marshal resources to provide housing and basic needs to the people arriving on a daily basis on buses provided by the state of Texas. Adams said a relief center will be built on Randall's Island to house hundreds of people, but warned at the rate of the arrivals, it will be filled within days of opening.
Adams revealed around 17,000 migrants have been bused to New York City by Texas and the city of El Paso since April 2022. By contrast, Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector in Texas encountered over 233,000 illegal immigrants between April and August of this year.
BREAKING: @NYCMayor Adams declares a state of emergency over the number of migrants continuing to arrive in NYC from the southern border amid the ongoing crisis. He says around 17,000 have been bused to the city since April of this year: pic.twitter.com/5wm477Bvzs
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2022
"New York City has already done nearly more than any other city to support this influx of asylum seekers and we can not deprived longtime New Yorkers of support, the services, even as we address the needs of these new arrivals," Adams said. "It's not sustainable and it is not right."
Adams, and New York City as a whole, have long declared the city is a sanctuary city for people coming across the southern border. The state of Texas is also providing buses for migrants to other sanctuary cities such as Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
