Adams said at least 17,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city by bus from other parts of the country since April.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Friday he plans to continue sending migrants from the Lone Star state to New York City after Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in response to the influx of migrants.
“Sanctuary cities like New York City experience a FRACTION of what Texas border communities face every day,” Abbott said on Twitter. “We’ll continue busing migrants to NYC, DC, & Chicago to relieve our overwhelmed border towns until [President] Biden does his job to secure the border.”
Sanctuary cities like New York City experience a FRACTION of what Texas border communities face every day.
We'll continue busing migrants to NYC, DC, & Chicago to relieve our overwhelmed border towns until Biden does his job to secure the border.https://t.co/fVNuf6nLAm
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 7, 2022
Adams said at least 17,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city by bus from other parts of the country since April. An average of five to six buses per day have arrived since September, he said.
The mayor said the city’s homeless shelters, are facing a “crisis” as one-in-five people in the shelter system is a migrant.
“This is a humanitarian crisis that started with violence and instability in South America and is being accelerated by American political dynamics,” Adams said Friday. “Thousands of asylum seekers have been bused into New York City and simply dropped off, without notice, coordination, or care — and more are arriving every day.”
Adams added that the “crisis is not of our own making” but will “affect everyone in this city, now and in the months ahead.”
“New Yorkers deserve to know why this is happening and what we plan to do,” he said.
Adams issued an executive order directing the relevant city agencies to coordinate their efforts to respond to the “crisis” and to build emergency response and relief centers.
The city expects to spend $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year helping the migrants find long-term shelter and health care.
Customs and Border Protection recorded 203,597 migrant encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border in August alone, bringing the total number of encounters for the fiscal year to more than 2 million for the first time ever. Border cities have been hardest hit by the crisis.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing migrants from the Lone Star State to New York City and Washington, D.C., in the spring.
Abbott previously said he decided to send busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., and New York City “because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies,” saying that “the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe.”
“In addition to Washington, D.C., 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,” he said when the first bus arrived in New York.
While Adams has been critical of Abbott, the Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, has sent more migrants to New York City than the governor has, per Fox News. The border city has bused more than 2,500 migrants to New York City since the end of August.