UPDATE:
NYC Mayor Eric Adams is seeking federal emergency funding to cope with a migrant crisis he attributes largely to the state of Texas, declaring a state of emergency to deal with the “five or six buses” filled with migrants that arrive in New York City every day.
Adams says that the migrants further strain the city’s maxed-out homeless shelter ecosystem, forcing New York to build warehouse-like tents on Randall’s Island to provide 500 temporary beds for migrants ultimately seeking to leave the city. Democrats have blamed the crisis in New York, a self-declared “sanctuary city,” on politicking Republican governors. But are they right?
According to CNN, more than 19,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past few months. Mayor Eric Adams claims that they are arriving “without notice, coordination or care” largely from the state of Texas. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the state of Texas has bussed about 3,300 migrants to New York City since August. But the report also notes that the Democrat-run city of El Paso, Texas has “chartered” 10,000 migrants to New York since January, 7,000 of them arriving between August and October. According to information posted in the City of El Paso’s Migrant Crisis FAQ, migrant charters are coordinated with the City of New York to provide migrants with passage to one of their top “destinations of choice.” CNN also noted that many migrants travel to the city with the help of nonprofits, rather than government agencies. These statistics suggest that coordination on migrant arrivals is happening more frequently than Mayor Adams claims.
Legal Aid attorney Kathryn Kriff told CNN that evictions, domestic violence, and exorbitant living costs are other factors city officials need to address when tackling the homelessness crisis. The sheer lack of affordable housing has driven thousands into homeless shelters, including children and families who have maxed out their time in secure shelters for domestic abuse survivors. Furthermore, the NYPD has been strained by political fights over funding and the role of policing as crime continues to rise. The legal and social environment in New York is rife with instability that could contribute to families’ displacement from their homes. These are issues which have no relation to the governor of Texas, but they are important to consider when contextualizing new migrant arrivals in NYC.
As tents are constructed to house hundreds of migrants, nonprofits and city officials have raised concerns about the living conditions they will provide. They are meant to be temporary shelters for migrants moving on from New York, a trend the city says is common for about a third of all who arrive by bus. Others could be moved into existing shelters, including those converted from hotels around the city.
As the New York Post reported on Wednesday, however, concerns over Randall Island living conditions may be unwarranted. The Post found that, compared to an existing shelter nearby, the migrant housing constructed on Randall’s Island offers more comfort, cleanliness, and safety. Amenities in the new migrant housing include a game room with consoles and laundry services. In contrast, the existing homeless and mental health shelter on Randall’s Island provides unsanitary bathrooms, inedible food, and an elevator that frequently breaks, trapping a man inside for four days in 2021.
While New York City struggles to provide suitable housing to all who ask (one of the city’s legal obligations), President Biden has only recently enacted a stay-in-Mexico policy for Venezuelan asylum-seekers. He simultaneously created “a legal pathway” for 24,000 migrants from Venezuela to cross the border into the United States. Conditions in New York indicate that current immigration policies are no more sustainable than the rising costs of living and rates of crime which have marked the past two years.
