NYC mayor declares state of emergency over influx of asylum seekers

(Image credit: John Lamparski / Contributor/ Getty Images)

published 7 October 2022

New York Mayor Eric Adams has declared a state of emergency to help handle a recent influx of migrants, a crisis he says will inevitably cost the city $1 billion this fiscal year, CNN reports.

"We now have a situation where more people are arriving in New York City than we can immediately accommodate, including families with babies and young children," Adams told reporters Friday. "Once the asylum seekers from today's buses are provided shelter, we would surpass the highest number of people in recorded history in our city's shelter system."

Nine buses from Texas arrived in the city on Sept. 18 (the most in one day), and at least 1,011 people seeking sanctuary arrived between Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, city officials told CNN. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) has spent millions of dollars to bus migrants from the U.S. southern border to Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago in protest of the Biden administration's immigration policies. In September, Abbott's office estimated they had shipped over 11,000 migrants to sanctuary cities since August.

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.

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