The nation’s illegal immigration crisis is about to get exponentially worse when Title 42 officially comes to an end this week as public officials brace for an expected flood of migrants, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams sounding the alarm that the city’s already stressed shelter system will be further inundated by busloads of new arrivals.
On Wednesday, the emergency public health order implemented by former President Donald J. Trump to mitigate the spread of COVID during the pandemic by placing limitations on entries into the country will be lifted, triggering what some have predicted will be a humanitarian catastrophe now that a Washington, D.C. appeals court ruling has cleared the way for potentially hundreds of thousands to enter the U.S., and the Big Apple will be the destination of many.
“Please be advised that due to the lifting of Title 42 later this week, the City is expecting a higher amount of asylum seeker buses beginning today with 2 buses today and 10-15 more expected in the next two days,” the Adams administration said in an email blast to City Council members and staffers that was obtained by the New York Post.
“We have diligently advocated for support from our Federal & State partners as we cannot continue to address this issue alone,” the email said, noting that City Hall has reached out to President Joe Biden and New York Governor Kathy Hochul for assistance in managing the influx of illegal aliens.
“We have been told in no uncertain terms that, beginning today, we should expect an influx of busses coming from the border and that more than 1,000 additional asylum seekers will arrive in New York City every week,” the email added.
Today's cover: Mayor Eric Adams calls out Hochul, feds as NYC braces for flood of migrants with end of Title 42 https://t.co/mnppc4ojsp pic.twitter.com/UopBLXCayw
— New York Post (@nypost) December 19, 2022
In an official statement put out on Sunday, Adams said, “We’ve already received more than 31,000 asylum seekers into our city, and currently have open 60 emergency shelters, four humanitarian relief centers, and two welcome centers. We’ve placed thousands of children in schools and, all told, we’ve already spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars paying to cloth, feed, house, and support this deeply in-need population.”
“This can’t continue. With the expiration of Title 42 just days away, we need the federal government — both in the administration and in Congress — to share their plans to move asylum seekers to other cities, to allow asylum seekers to work, and to send aid to the cities that have borne the brunt of this crisis,” the statement said. “We need our partners in the state to acknowledge they too have a responsibility here, and to provide the resources we’ve asked. We need advocates that speak on behalf of the most vulnerable to step up and press the state and federal government to act. And we need New Yorkers to understand that, so far, they have been asked to shoulder this burden almost entirely alone, despite the fact that this challenge originated far beyond our city’s borders.”
“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff, and space. Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain. These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers. I’ll say it again — we need a plan, we need assistance, and we need it now,” pleaded Hizzoner.
Adams has already seen his city’s migrant population swell as a result of busloads of border crossers being relocated by the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona, but once Title 42 is lifted, the surge will test his administration’s ability to adequately process the asylum seekers while balancing the needs of actual citizens whose own ability to obtain access to essential services like shelters will be further strained as temperatures drop.
In May, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that as many as 18,000 migrants a day could pour into the country once the Trump-era restrictions are removed.
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