Since August 9, New York City’s homeless population grew from 5,000 to almost 56,000 which caused problems for the city’s infrastructure to help the homeless. At the beginning of August, that is when Texas Governor Greg Abbott started sending busses of migrants to New York.
So this past Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams welcomed migrants to the new welcome center.
The welcome center provides COVID vaccinations for school-age children, a city identification card, neon-colored sneakers, and other necessities.
With the arrival of migrants initially, it overwhelmed the city's resources as it had for other sanctuary cities including Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Mr. Adams said:
“We need help. We have not been ashamed to say that. We need help, and all those who think we’re not getting it right, they should come and show us how to get it right because we believe we are getting it right.”
Since May, over 11,000 migrants have arrived in the city. The city has no way to track where they all arrived from but some arrived over the Mexican border. In response, New York City opened 23 emergency shelters to handle a large number of arrivals.
Mr. Brendan McGuire is the chief counsel Mayor Adams added:
“We are not reassessing the right to shelter. We are reassessing the city’s practices that have developed around the right to shelter. [When the law was developed, no one was] contemplating that there were going to be over 10,000 individuals bused into New York with no connection to New York from overseas.”
New York is also working with some migrants since they want to go to other locations in the United States. So not every migrant is staying in the Big Apple.
City Commissioner of Immigration Affairs Manuel Castro said:
"Many want to go to places like Florida where the largest community of Venezuelans live."
"We're helping them get to their actual final destination. We're doing our best."
And, Texas Governor Abbott said:
"New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city. I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief."
Governor Abbott even offered Mayor Adams and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser a visit to Texas and the border issue they were facing. Mayor Adams refused but he sent a delegation recently on a fact-finding mission that you can read here.
New York is doing its best to help integrate the migrants into its city and desired location of residence.
Do you think the city of New York is handling the migrants as best as it can?