New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that there is ‘no more room in New York’ for asylum seekers being sent to the Big Apple.
Speaking during a news conference from El Paso, Texas, with Mayor Oscar Leeser on Sunday, Adams told media members that migrants who had come to the New York were being fed misinformation, including that there’s automatic employment and housing in a hotel.
‘We have to give people accurate information, and that is what some of the centers are doing here. They are truly explaining to people that this is what’s happening in New York right now,’ he explained. ‘New York, you go there, you are going to be living in congregate settings, that there is no more room in New York. That should be coordinated by our national government, not only done locally here by those NGOs, but it should be done by our national government. That is not happening.’
The mayor said people had seen shows about New York City on TV and that they believed there would be ‘all the resources available’ once they got there.
Again, responding to a question from a reporter, Adams called on the federal government to take action.
‘New York has been a place where the humanitarian response of the migrant crisis has been really something that’s a symbol of what we are as a country. Making sure that people have a safe place to sleep, making sure they have medical care, food, clean clothing. Our volunteers, our NGOs making sure no one is without the necessary needs that they deserve,’ he said. ‘We’ve done our job. Now it’s time for the national government to do its job.’
Adams previously said the migrant influx could cost the city as much as $2 billion.
The mayor said last week that the city had submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the State of New York.
Over the course of a week ending last Friday, New York City reportedly received more than 3,100 asylum seekers.
In recent months, Republican governors have sent thousands of migrants to Democrat-run cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Reuters contributed to this report.