New York City Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Mexico to discourage asylum seekers from traveling to the city as the city is “exhausted” and struggling to accommodate the 122,000 people who have arrived in 18 months – all in Unlike the time he personally greeted her with an open mouth at Guns last year.
“This is just the beginning of trying to be on the ground and understand the full flow of migrants and asylum seekers,” Adams said last night as he arrived in Mexico City for a four-day trip, where he will also travel to Ecuador and Colombia are asked to speak to the leaders of these countries.
Speaking later at the foot of a basilica in the city where people often pray before beginning their journey, Adams said he hoped to “meet the expectations” of migrants making the journey.
New York City is reeling under the strain of a massive influx of migrants that has overwhelmed its housing system and strained financial resources – the cost of housing them is $4.7 billion. The horrendous costs are equal to the budgets of the city’s sanitation, fire and parks departments combined.
On Tuesday, the distraught mayor also pleaded with a judge to strike down the city’s longstanding “right to shelter” law, demanding that it be invalid during a state of emergency. The city has been moving for months to suspend the policy amid the influx of migrants, arguing that the requirement was never intended to apply to a humanitarian crisis like the recent influx.
Adams’ plea and trip to Mexico to deter migrants represents a stunning about-face from the start of the crisis, when he went to the Port Authority to meet a bus full of asylum seekers sent from Texas by Republican Gov. Gregg Abbot , who argued that progressive cities should also bear the costs of the influx of asylum seekers across the southern border.
At the time, Adams said: “As mayor of New York, I must provide services to the families who live here, and that is what we will do – our responsibility as a city, and I am proud to do so.” , and we will continue to do so.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Mexico to discourage migrants from traveling to the city, saying the city was “exhausted” and struggling to accommodate the 122,000 people who arrived last year
In August 2022, New York Mayor Eric Adams welcomed migrants at the Port Authority from Texas and said he was proud that New York was a sanctuary state
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to the press outside the Basilica of Guadalupe on Wednesday after a visit to the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City
After a month in which over 200,000 migrants were processed at the border, the crisis shows no signs of slowing. The footage above shows hundreds running across the border in El Paso
Hundreds of migrants line up early August 1 to be housed at the reception center at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York
Migrants stream into New York City, lining up to enter Federal Plaza and file paperwork with immigration authorities, Oct. 2
But by May of this year, Adams had made significant changes to the 40-year-old “right to shelter” law that guarantees a bed to everyone who needs it in the city, and his administration asked the federal and state governments to help deal with it The influx of migrants he now says could destroy New York as we know it.
On Wednesday, the mayor also joined a growing number of voices calling for a broader global response to the rising number of migrants to the United States
“The message that this is not sustainable cannot stay within the borders of New York City.” “There is global migration and there must be an international response.”
In August, the U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 apprehensions on the Mexican border, a 37 percent increase from July but little change from August 2022 and significantly fewer than the more than 220,000 in December, figures released in September show.
Before his trip, Adams previously said: “We want to give an honest assessment of what we are experiencing here in this city.” “We are at capacity.”
“We’ll tell them that staying in New York doesn’t mean you have to stay in a five-star hotel.” “That doesn’t mean that just because you come here you’re automatically allowed to work,” he said .
Adams has made a series of urgent pleas for a change in federal immigration policy and for funding to help the city deal with the arrival of migrants, which he said could cost the city $12 billion over three years, as it rents rooms in hotels and builds new emergency shelters and provides various government services for asylum seekers.
As part of his efforts to contain the crisis, Adams recently decided to tighten New York’s shelter-in-place rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city facilities due to overcrowding.
Migrants arrive in New York City and line up near 60 Center Street to enter Federal Plaza and file paperwork with immigration authorities
Eric Adams speaks to the press outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where he tried to dissuade migrants from coming to New York City
Asylum seekers line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City
A view of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into city-run housing for newly arrived migrant families, on September 27 in New York City, USA
Asylum seekers line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City
A group of migrants wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families
A line of asylum seekers lines up outside the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families
City and state leaders in New York, Illinois and elsewhere have called on the federal government to make it easier for migrants to obtain work permits so they can pay for food and housing.
Chicago has welcomed more than 8,000 migrants since August, and city leaders have warned of a humanitarian crisis.
This came after hundreds of migrants arrived on a freight train on Tuesday evening in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
They got off the train and immediately made their way to the border, where they stopped in front of rolls of barbed wire.
Elizabeth Romero, 32, left Venezuela three months earlier with her husband and six-year-old son. Three weeks pregnant at the time, she spent her first trimester wandering the jungle-covered border between Colombia and Panama, and most recently spent three days aboard the freight train that took her to the U.S.-Mexico border.
She and her son, who celebrated his 6th birthday this week on the roof of a boxcar, suffered bouts of fever. They left Venezuela because they couldn’t make ends meet financially. Her family stays there.
“We hope that the United States will receive us and give us the support we need,” Romero said. They wanted to contact US authorities at the border because they had already waited three months without being able to get an appointment to apply for asylum via CBP One, a mobile app.
The US has tried to get Mexico and countries further south to become more involved. In April, the United States, Panama and Colombia announced a campaign to slow migration through the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. But migration through the jungle has only accelerated and is expected to reach about 500,000 people this year.
A family from Venezuela waits to be processed by U.S. agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States on September 30
Asylum seekers wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States
From an aerial view, a U.S. Border Patrol agent watches immigrants enter the United States from Mexico after crossing the Rio Grande
Elsewhere, it was announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden administration officials will visit Mexico on Wednesday to discuss common security issues, most notably the trade in the synthetic opioid fentanyl, but also arms trafficking and increasing migration.
The latest round of high-level security dialogue brings together Blinken, US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, among others, with their Mexican counterparts for two days of talks.
Increased migration flows are expected to be discussed as the Biden administration comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and mayors in the president’s own party to do more to slow migrant arrivals.
Blinken was scheduled to discuss migration on Wednesday with Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena and the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama.