Posted at 5:00 am
Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in New York on Friday as the city struggles to respond to an influx of thousands of immigrants from Latin America.
In a speech at City Hall, Mr. Adams said the city is preparing to spend US$1 billion to combat the situation and has requested federal and state funds to pay for housing and services for immigrants who have strained the city’s homeless accommodation system.
Photo by Dave Sanders, New York Times
New York Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency at a press conference in New York on Friday
“We need help, and we need it now,” Adams said.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat in office since January, said the city was moving forward with plans to build a tent welcome center on Randall’s Island in the East River outside Manhattan. City officials are negotiating with cruise lines to accommodate migrants on the ship.
Mr Adams said the city had been overwhelmed by around 17,000 migrants since April and he expected up to 100,000 to arrive eventually. At least nine additional migrant coaches arrived on Thursday.
The mayor said that 42 emergency shelters have been set up in the town hall and 5 thousand children have been enrolled in schools. But he said she urgently needs additional help to serve immigrants.
Declaring a state of emergency allows city officials to move more quickly to provide services, Adams said. The city is also exploring ways to send some migrants to other cities, he added.
Management criticized
“A city recovering from a global pandemic is overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis,” he said, adding that New York is “on the edge of a precipice”.
Mr. Adams has drawn criticism for his response to the crisis from homeless advocates and city council members, who have criticized efforts to house migrants in tents or shacks on boats. They called for utilizing the vacant hotels and shifting the shelter residents to permanent residences as soon as possible.
City officials are considering housing up to 2,700 migrants on a cruise ship and are in talks with three cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Line, Frank Caron, the mayor’s chief of staff, said in a brief interview at City Hall. The other two companies are Norwegian Cruise Line and Talink, which are hosting Ukrainian refugees in Estonia.
City officials are considering various places to dock the cruise ship, including a pier on Staten Island known as Homeport, located between the St. George ferry terminal and the Verrazano Bridge.
Mr Adams blamed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for failing to coordinate migrant arrivals with his administration and called on him on Friday to stop sending buses to New York and shift the burden to other cities.
“New Yorkers are angry,” Adams said. I got angry too. We didn’t ask for that. »
A call for help
The mayor’s repeated pleas for federal and state aid are also putting pressure on President Joe Biden and New York State Gov. Cathy Hochul, who are a month away from the November election.
When asked if Mr. Biden and Mr. Pettame Hochul, in a critical position, replied Mr. Adams: “No, not at all. »
Mr. Adams said he recently spoke with Mr. Biden about the crisis, and that Mr. Biden and Mr.me Hochul understands the challenges facing the city.
They understand that this is an emergency and that New York needs help.
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York
Angelo Roffaro, a spokesman for New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, said his office “is in close communication with the Adams team and will work with the New York state delegation to get resources and be helpful to the Biden administration.”
Photo by Paul Ratze, Reuters
The Venezuelan family of Frédéric Pinango and Julianis Contreras board a New York-bound bus at the Migrant Reception Center in El Paso, Texas, on October 3.
On Friday, city officials argued that nearly a third of immigrants arriving in New York want to go to other destinations, including Venezuelan immigrants who have relatives or friends in Florida. Mr. Adams indicated that the city is working to transport these immigrants to other cities.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless released a statement saying they agree with the mayor that the city needs additional state and federal support, but the city’s homelessness crisis began several years ago.
“The shelter population is at an all-time high not just because of the influx of refugees, the groups say. The city’s historic and shameful failure to invest enough in affordable housing continues to fuel mass homelessness. »
The groups called on New York City to “abandon its plan to build tent cities and focus on high-quality indoor shelter options and permanent housing.”
This article was originally published The New York Times.
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