With migrants from Latin America needing shelter and health care arriving by the busload, Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency for New York City on Friday, calling the situation a humanitarian crisis. The mayor said at least 17,000 people seeking asylum have been bused in from other parts of the country, mostly Texas, since April, per Axios. "We have not asked for this," Adams said in an address at City Hall. "There was never any agreement to take on the job of supporting thousands of asylum-seekers." Five or six buses a day are arriving, he said, with nine on Thursday alone.
The city plans to spend $1 billion to address the issue but can't do it alone, Adams said. He urged the federal and state governments to fund housing and services for the migrants, the New York Times reports. "We need help, and we need it now," he said. The city has established 42 emergency shelters and enrolled 5,000 migrant children in schools, Adams said. The city plans a tent intake center on Randall's Island in the East River, he said, and is talking with cruise ship companies about allowing migrants to stay on board. Some City Council members and homeless advocates have criticized both those projects, urging that empty hotels be used instead until permanent housing can be found.
Adams insisted that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stop sending buses to his city. Sending migrants to New York and Washington, DC, had cost Texas more than $12 million through August. Adams has said Abbott is using "innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis," per Axios. His office contacted Abbott's to coordinate the busing but got nowhere, per the Texas Tribune. "This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America, and it is being accelerated by American political dynamics," Adams said, per Axios. (More New York City stories.)
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