New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday said the influx of tens of thousands of migrants will bring a “financial tsunami” as departments across the board are forced to slash budgets to accommodate the new arrivals.
The mayor’s dire warning came during an appearance on PIX 11’s “PIX on Politics” days after he predicted that the crisis “will destroy New York City.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams listens to Gov. Kathy Hochul deliver her State of the State address in the Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol on Jan. 10, 2023, in Albany, New York. (AP/Hans Pennink)
Adams said it was his job as mayor, to be honest and transparent with New Yorkers about the reality of the crisis they are facing.
“We are about to experience a financial … tsunami that I don’t think the city has ever experienced,” Adams said. “Every service in this city is going to be impacted from child service to our seniors to housing. Everything will be impacted.
He warned that women and children may soon have to share spaces with single men, and public safety could be threatened, alluding to a brawl that broke out at a migrant shelter in Brooklyn Thursday morning.
Responding to criticism that his words were deemed “reckless,” Mayor Adams said the reality on the ground “was not an academic exercise.”
Migrants await registration outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. The asylum seekers are forced to wait on the streets, since the hotel is currently at capacity. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital )
“This is not a utopia. New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight,” he said. “That can’t happen, and that is going to undermine this entire city.”
The mayor further warned that every city department will likely see budget cuts to address the anticipated $12 billion price tag of the migrant crisis.
Several major U.S. cities have struggled with an influx of many thousands of asylum seekers who have filled up homeless shelters after entering the U.S. New York City’s shelter system has been especially overwhelmed.
Illegal border crossings fell sharply after the Biden administration introduced new restrictions in May. But the numbers are again rising — pushed higher this time by families with children. According to preliminary data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, August was the busiest month ever for apprehensions for migrant families crossing the border with children from Mexico.
FILE: Migrants gather outside of the Roosevelt Hotel where dozens of recently arrived migrants have been camping out as they try to secure temporary housing on August 02, 2023 in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Families with children now account for about half of arrests of people crossing the border illegally from Mexico, with more than 91,000 arrests in August, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.
New York City has welcomed at least 110,000 since spring 2022, nearly 60,000 temporarily living in government shelters.
“Let’s be clear: No one wants asylum-seeking women and children in congregate shelters, but, as we have said repeatedly, with more than 110,000 asylum seekers that have come through our care since spring 2022, and hundreds more arriving daily, we cannot continue to do work to solve a national crisis that the state and federal governments have refused to take meaningful action on,” a spokesperson for Adams’ office told Fox News Digital.
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“New York City has far passed its breaking point, and the best way to avoid heartbreaking outcomes — like what we saw outside The Roosevelt Hotel earlier this summer — is for the federal government to expedite work authorizations, declare a national state of emergency, and create a decompression strategy that would help spread asylum seekers across the state and country.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
