Mayor Eric Adams flew to the U.S. border Saturday to get a firsthand look at the migrant crisis on the heels of his plea to the state for emergency aid.
The mayor sounded a dire alarm Friday when he issued an emergency aid request to the state for help sheltering the flow of migrants that he said has pushed New York city's shelter system.
"Based off our projections, we anticipate being unable to continue sheltering arriving asylum seekers on our own and have submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the State of New York beginning this weekend," Adams said.
Word of Adams' trip came hours after his public plea, with a travel advisory coming out of his office announcing the southern border trip "as New York City continues to face an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers."
The mayor has called on the state for immediate help this weekend, noting the cost to handle arriving migrants from the border has ballooned well beyond what has been budgeted.
"Governor Hochul will continue working collaboratively with Mayor Adams to assist the city with asylum seekers, and we are reviewing the city's recent requests," a spokesperson for the governor said Saturday.
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Adams' emergency mutual aid request to the state asks for immediate help acquiring 500 additional beds, but warns more will likely be needed. The influx of migrants to the Big Apple has stretched the city's shelter system exponentially. Already, it's estimated some 40,000 people seeking asylum made it to NYC in the past year.
That total was bolstered last week by the arrival of more than 3,100 asylum seekers, the city said. An average of 400 people were coming on any given day that week, with Thursday topping out at 835 arrivals, the most on any given day since the influx began.
“The absence of sorely needed federal immigration reform should not mean that this humanitarian crisis falls only on the shoulders of cities. We need support and aid from our federal and state partners and look forward to working together to meet this crisis head-on," his statement concluded.
Leading organizations working to support arriving asylum seekers issued a quick response on the heels of the mayor's warning Friday.
The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless put out a joint statement reiterating the city's Right to Shelter obligations "regardless of the circumstances," while acknowledging a lack of outside support.
“That said, Washington and Albany have so far provided only minimal financial assistance for the City to meet this moment, and all levels of government must do their part to ensure that legal obligations are met and all people in need, including asylum seekers, are provided access to safe, decent, and accessible shelter," their statement read.
