In September of 2023, it was recorded that more than 118,000 migrants had arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. This statistic prompted Mayor Eric Adams to declare a state of emergency in the city. The rush of migrants has put a serious strain on resources and city officials concur that there is not enough space to support this incoming volume of people. This increase is expected to cost the city around twelve billion dollars in the next three years. Mayor Adams has been adamant about putting a stop to this crisis by begging the federal government, even going to Washington himself, to obtain sufficient funding and hasten work authorizations for the incoming migrants, which would allow them to be self-sufficient. Adams relayed his frustration by claiming that President Biden has “failed” the city by not attempting to do more. During this time, Adams has also been dissuading migrants from seeking shelter in New York City.
Incoming migrants are mainly coming from Venezuela, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Algeria. As of February, over seven million refugees and migrants left Venezuela due to the country’s ongoing economic crisis. While the majority of Venezuelan migrants are seeking refuge in the Caribbean and Latin American countries, many have still made the dangerous trek through Central America and across the United States’ border. Similarly, migrants from Africa have flown into Latin American countries and also then cross over the United States’ border on foot. This influx is largely because of inhabitable climate changes to their region, such as water scarcity, heat waves, and increased disease outbreaks in their home countries.
As migrants have flooded the Southern border of the United States, the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, has bused thousands to cities across the country, including New York City. These actions primarily served as an attempt to aggravate the federal government enough to tighten border security. He states, “President Biden’s continued refusal to secure our border invites thousands of illegal crossings into Texas and our nation each day.” He continues, “Texas communities like Eagle Pass and El Paso should not have to shoulder the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration caused by President Biden’s reckless open border policies. I have directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional buses to send these migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and provide much-needed relief to our overrun border towns.”
Back in March of 2023, New York City created a twenty-four hour center that would serve as housing for new migrants and a new agency for asylum seekers. However, as more shelter systems become strained, the city’s response to these migrants has varied. In September of 2023, over 61,400 migrants were staying in homeless shelters throughout the city. The total number of people staying in homeless shelters in the entire city was around 115,200. In response, the city began housing migrants in a multitude of other places. These areas included tent shelters on Randall’s island, school gymnasiums, and office buildings. The city has also explored the possibilities of temporary housing in the parking lots of psychiatric hospitals. Mayor Adams even considered providing housing for migrants on cruise ships. By September of 2023, the city was able to open 210 shelter sites, which included 17 humanitarian relief centers for asylum seekers.
Many New Yorkers have been vocal about their dislike of such an increased need for migrant housing. While the majority of New Yorkers have expressed in polls that immigrants add a richness to American culture and know that most are here to pursue a better life with more opportunities, recent polls also reveal that a large number of New Yorkers deem the migrant crisis to be a “serious problem” and reiterate that there needs to be a stopping or slowing of the new arrivals. Nearly half even admitted that migrants to the state within the last twenty years have been considered to be a “burden” rather than a “benefit.” Taking this opinion into account, the Adams administration has put forth an effort to dissuade migrants from coming to New York City. Fliers were distributed at the Southern border advertising that there is “no guarantee” that migrants can receive shelter or services in New York City.
Due to the extreme pushback, many migrants have opted to pursue asylum, despite the process taking a minimum of about three to four years. Between March and May of 2023, around 39,000 new immigration court cases were filed in New York City, while only around 11,000 were filed in Miami-Dade County, Fla., and about 16,000 were filed in Los Angeles County, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. In June of 2023, Mayor Adams created the Asylum Application Help Center to combine immigration legal service providers and pro bono lawyers to serve the plethora of asylum-seeking migrants. By mid-September, the help center was able to complete more than 3,800 applications. Even though the number of migrants who were applying for asylum had skyrocketed, advocates and immigration lawyers predicted that a majority would miss their application deadline due to the lack of additional legal support available. This would result in immigrants becoming undocumented, therefore placing them in jeopardy.
This fall, the Biden administration attempted to slow the influx of migrants by implementing a program that would allow up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants into the country. This program requires Venezuelan migrants who apply to have someone who already lives in the United States be able to financially support them for up to two years. This led to a decrease in the number of Venezuelans who entered the country in the days after the program was installed, leaving some stranded in Mexico and other Latin American countries. In addition, the Biden administration notified the American people of a new asylum policy intended to curb illegal migrant crossing for the upcoming spring. This policy prohibited migrants who have crossed into the United States without making an appointment at an official port or showing that they had acquired legal protection in another country on the way to the United States from applying for asylum. While this new policy was dismantled by a federal judge in July, it was able to be upheld on an appeal while any legal challenges that were made against the policy went through the courts. As a result of this, the amount of migrants crossing the United States border decreased, but soon went back on the rise again in July of 2023.