Distressed New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked a judge to strike down the city’s longstanding “right to shelter” law as he struggles to house more than 122,000 migrants who have flooded the Big Apple since last year.
Adams, 63, sent a letter Tuesday night asking a judge to reject the city’s legal requirement to provide protection for adults, claiming the 1981 law should be invalid during a state of emergency.
In the letter, sent to New York Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards, he warned that the huge influx “shows no sign of abating,” citing a staggering increase in the number of people in the custody of the City by 159 percent since April 2022.
As he looks for solutions, Adams traveled south of the border on Wednesday to discourage migrants from moving to New York City after entering the United States.
Adams’ distress over the situation stands in stark contrast to his previous public outreach to migrants, in which he claimed just a year ago that he was “proud” to house asylum seekers and vowed to “continue to do so.”
However, the embattled mayor’s letter was met with swift backlash from homeless advocacy groups, who claimed the move would “erode” homeless people’s rights.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, pictured in Mexico on Wednesday, argued for suspending the legal requirement to house migrants as he warned: “It is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue.”
Adams traveled south of the border to stop migrants from going to New York City after entering the United States. He speaks to the press in front of the Basilica of Guadalupe after a visit to the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Migrants pouring into New York at a rate of nearly 800 people a day are lining up this week to enter Federal Plaza and file applications with immigration authorities
Adams has reached out to various landmark hotels and shelters in the city to find space for the more than 120,000 migrants flooding the Big Apple, but warned this week that he is “exhausted.”
The former police officer’s tenure was marked by the refugee crisis, as he claimed in his letter, “New York City has done more than any other city in the last 18 months to address this national humanitarian crisis.”
In a statement accompanying the letter, Adams added: “Given that more than 122,700 asylum seekers have come through our reception system since spring 2022 and a three-year cost of over $12 billion is projected, it is abundantly clear that the Status quo cannot continue.” .’
Notably, the letter comes on the heels of Adams’ high-profile four-day trip to Latin America, where he said he wanted to tell asylum seekers not to expect “five-star hotels” when they move to the Big Apple.
More than 200 emergency shelters – including 17 large humanitarian aid centers – have already reached capacity in the city.
Adams urged Edwards to consider not only a temporary suspension of the Right to Shelter Act “if current circumstances warrant it,” but also to suspend the rules at any time if the governor or mayor declares a state of emergency, if necessary There is an increase in people seeking protection.
He argued that the right-to-shelter provisions, when passed, “were never intended to apply to the extraordinary circumstances facing our city today.”
The letter was sent to New York Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards and cited a series of alarming statistics that show the crisis is beyond the control of city officials
But as the city focuses fully on the refugee crisis, in which iconic hotels like the Roosevelt Hotel have been converted into emergency shelters, homeless groups warned that Adams’ latest proposal could be a slippery slope.
The Legal Aid Society, the group that filed the lawsuit that led to the Right to Housing Act, released a joint statement with the Coalition for the Homeless condemning the move as a death sentence for homeless protections.
“This is the city’s most significant and damaging attempt to fulfill its legal and moral obligation to provide safe and decent housing to homeless people since that right was established 42 years ago,” the groups said.
“Street homelessness would reach levels not seen in our city since the Great Depression.”
Many migrants are forced to sleep outside on the streets of New York City, with families in hotel rooms given priority as shelters reach capacity.
The letter is not the first time Adams has sought to end the shelter-in-place mandate, having previously called for changes to the law in May.
Adams cited his previous petition in his Tuesday letter, noting that the number of migrants who have asked the city for protection has since increased to about 50,600.
Since April 1, 2022, over 122,700 migrants have poured into New York City in search of safety, and the total number of people the city must shelter has jumped 159 percent over the same period.
Since May 21, 2023, officials have opened an additional 61 shelters across the city and spent over $1.1 billion as they continue to grapple with the crisis.
Hundreds of refugees slept outside the Roosevelt Hotel in August as the historic building was converted into a refugee camp
Officials said Tuesday that 412 people are currently waiting for shelter placement at Roosevelt (pictured in August), and many of them are being forced to sleep outside as families are given priority housing
Migrants line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, United States, on September 27, 2023, which has been converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families
Adams announced this week that he would travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to try to stop more migrants from moving to New York City after entering America.
During a four-day trip, he will meet with officials in Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia.
Adams was seen speaking to reporters as he began his trip in Mexico, where he visited the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe before appearing at the North Capital Forum to meet with government officials.
He will then travel to Quito, Ecuador, for further meetings before heading to Bogotá, Colombia, and finally to the Darien Gap, a dangerous part of the route that many South American migrants pass through on their way to the United States.
As Adams prepares for his trip south of the border, his office became embroiled in controversy when his top aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, appeared to call on the federal government to “close the borders” amid the crisis.
On Tuesday, the mayor walked back those comments, insisting that the border should remain open but that border crossings should be redirected to other cities.
“We believe the borders should remain open,” Adams said at a news conference.
“That is the official position of this city, but we have made it clear that there should be a decompression strategy so that we can properly deal with the crowds coming into our city.”
“We are at full capacity,” Adams added to reporters on Tuesday. “We will 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.”
“I can’t believe we’re still in a situation where we’re talking about how many more sites we want to open.” We have 118,000 people who have come to New York City. “This is a national and international crisis,” said Anne Williams-Isom, New York’s deputy mayor for health and human services.
“This is a national and an international crisis,” she added. “We really need a decompression strategy so we can send the people who are coming over to other parts of the United States.”
Williams-Isom said new migrant arrivals in the city have recently reached 600 to 800 people per day, double the previous level of about 10,000 per month.
Dramatic photos show the moment migrants cross the Rio Grande from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to Eagle Pass, Texas – which has recently become the epicenter of border crossings
Many migrants endure difficult conditions as they make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border in hopes of ending up in sanctuary cities like New York City
As New York City struggles to find space for the flooding, the small Texas town of Eagle Pass has become the epicenter of the unprecedented crossings.
The Texas city of just 28,000 residents has been overwhelmed by migrants in recent weeks, with border crossings rising to about 8,000 a day in the week ending Sept. 22, according to the Washington Office of Latin America.
The number of border crossings is only approaching April 2023 levels, when Title 42 of the pandemic-era immigration policy expired.
Similar to the Big Apple, shelters in border towns like Eagle Pass are well beyond capacity due to the thousands of crossings per day.
As officials scramble for solutions, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has led the movement to bus migrants to northern states to share the burden of ineffective border policies while drawing attention to the crisis.