'We Are at Capacity': NYC Mayor Eric Adams Wraps up Four-Day South America Trip

Updated Oct. 11, 2023, 9:35 a.m. PST

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and the Darien Gap during a four-day tour to discourage migrants from coming to his city, telling them, "We are at capacity."
• He also said: “We are neighbors. We are familia. Mi casa es su casa. Your struggles are my struggles,” highlighting the often contradictory challenges Adams faces. 
• Adams said:

“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in a five-star hotel. It doesn’t mean that, the mere fact that you come here, you automatically are going to be allowed to work.”

• He continued:

“There is no more room in New York. Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not. We don’t want to put people in congregate shelters. We don’t want people to think they will be employed.”

• Speaking in Colombia, Adams argued that migrants already in the city should have the right to work and has been calling on the federal government to speed up work authorizations:

“Nothing is more humane and, nothing is more American than your right to work, and we believe that is a right we should extend.”

• Adams has also asked a judge to suspend the “right to shelter” rule that requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who requests it, citing the influx of migrants as an unforeseen humanitarian crisis. The shelter requirement has been in place since 1981.
• Adams said:

“With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue. New York City cannot continue to do this alone.”

Updated Sept. 11, 2023, 2:03 p.m. PST

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams has sounded the alarm on the strains that migration is placing on the city, arguing that the busloads of migrants being sent up from Southern states are pushing the city to the limit of its budget and resources.
• At a town-hall-style meeting on Sept. 6, Adams said:

“Let me tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City.”

• Adams has criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R):

“We’ve turned this city around in 20 months. And then what happened? Started with a madman down in Texas, decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City: 110,000 migrants.”

• Adams has been a vocal critic of both President Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) for failing to provide resources, funding, and expedited work permits for migrants and asylum seekers. Adams projected that the city’s budget gap could grow to $12 billion.

The scope of migration in the city

• The city has seen an influx of 110,000 migrants since last year. New York City has a mandate that it must provide shelter to anyone who needs it, and the migrant surge has led to the opening of 200 emergency sites. Shelters are at capacity, with officials saying that 500 new migrants are arriving each day.
• Anne Williams-Isom, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services, said:

“Before, the right to shelter and what’s going on in New York City was like our little secret. Now the whole globe knows that if you go to New York City, we’re going to do what we always do. We have a big heart. We have compassion. We’re going to take care of people.”

Criticisms

• Murad Awawdeh, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, criticized Adams:

“The comments are uncalled for. Using dangerous language sometimes leads to dangerous acts and we don’t want people put in that situation. So it’s important that leaders understand how to communicate [to] not put people’s lives on the line."

• The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said:

"His dystopian comments dehumanize and villainize people who fled unimaginable situations in their home countries merely for an opportunity to provide for their families and secure a better life."

The strain on schools

• There are 1,700 certified bilingual teachers fluent in Spanish across the city’s 1,900 public schools, but the enrollment of 20,000 migrant children in New York City schools has tested the system.
• Natasha Quiroga, from the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, said:

“Any city would struggle to receive the large number of children that are coming at one time, who are also learning English, as well as living in temporary housing or in temporary shelters. The city has attempted to create some sort of plan, but there is still just not enough there, just not enough resources to go around.”

What's the story?

• New York City's mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency over an influx of migrants sent to his city by Texas's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
• During a meeting with administration officials in Washington, D.C., last Friday, he requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stop sending funding to cities that ship migrants north. He also called on emergency federal and state relief.
• Activists have decried Gov. Abbott's moves and argue that GOP lawmakers use asylum seekers and migrants as pawns in political stunts, undermining their humanity and autonomy.

What is Adams saying?

• Adams says that New York will be responsible for spending at least $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year on the migrant crisis alone and that the influx of unexpected migrants is putting a strain on the city's resources. City officials project that they will spend at least $4.3 billion on the crisis by June 2024.
• Adams said:

"There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum seekers. This responsibility was simply handed to us without warning as buses began showing up. There is no playbook for this, no precedent."

• Adams implored FEMA to act:

"We need a real leadership moment from FEMA. This is a national crisis. FEMA deals with national crises. FEMA must step up and there should be one coordinator to coordinate everything that is happening dealing with migrants and asylum seekers in our country."

• Adams has criticized Biden's response to the crisis in NYC:

"Washington, it's time to respond. Enough is enough."

Why is Abbott sending buses north?

• Abbott has been sending buses filled with migrants north before the midterm elections to increase support among his staunchly anti-immigration voter base.
• Abbott's actions mirror Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who flew asylum seekers north to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in September 2022.
• Republican leaders like Abbott and DeSantis are trying to highlight what they perceive as the failed border policies of the Biden administration. 
• Gov. Abbott said:

"Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city – welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality. Talk is cheap. When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk."

• Abbott has spent over $14 million sending more than 10,000 migrants to cities, including self-proclaimed "sanctuary cities" like Washington, D.C., New York, and Chicago.

What is the situation on the ground?

• More than 17,000 asylum seekers have been bussed into NYC since the spring. A vast majority of the migrants are from Venezuela.
• Adams said that once the most recent crop of asylum seekers is processed and given shelter, the city will have the highest recorded number of people in their shelter system.
• NYC currently has more than 61,000 individuals — almost 20,000 children — in its shelter system. NYC has set up a "tent city" emergency relief center where asylum seekers can rest and get assistance for the next leg of their journey, often to another city or state.
• The vast majority are seeking legal permission to remain in the U.S., often citing poverty, cartel violence, and environmental degradation as the source of their bid for asylum.

Do you agree with the state of emergency declaration? 

-Emma Kansiz