Illegal Immigrant Influx Pushing NYC to ‘Breaking Point,’ Warns Mayor Adams

Crisis could cost city $2 billion, mayor says

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks at a Brooklyn police facility in New York, on June 6, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made an emergency aid request to the state in light of an illegal immigrant crisis that he says is bringing the city to its “breaking point.”

Since last spring, around 40,000 illegal immigrants have been sheltered in New York City’s five boroughs, according to the mayor. The inflows have been rapidly growing, straining the city’s resources, from shelter to food. Last week, the city received more than 3,100 illegal aliens, including 835 on Jan. 12—the largest number of arrivals on a single day in the city’s history.

“We are at our breaking point,” Adams said on Jan. 13, adding that the city, after opening 74 emergency shelters and four humanitarian relief centers, now “faces an immediate need for additional capacity.”

The emergency mutual aid request, coming three months after Adams declared a state of emergency over the illegal immigrant surge, is “reserved only for dire emergencies,” he said. The initial request seeks help to shelter 500 illegal aliens, but Adams noted the number could go up “as New York City continues to see numbers balloon.”

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, as well as Democrats in El Paso, Texas, have been busing illegal immigrants to New York. Earlier this month, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, also began to clear illegal aliens from his state by transporting them to places like Chicago and New York, although he stopped doing so following complaints from the Democratic mayors of both cities.

Nearly 70,000 people sleep in New York City’s shelter facilities on a given night (pdf). On Jan. 12, Adams said he expects the city to have 100,000 people in its care, between the illegal alien influx and the homeless population.

About 11,000 illegal immigrant children have entered the city’s public schools.

The price tag from the influx could be anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, the mayor claimed—twice what he previously requested from the Biden administration to address the issue.

People walk across the Rio Grande to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Dec. 13, 2022. Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

“The strain on our infrastructure is just immense. I cannot tell you how much of an impact this is having on our abilities to provide basic services for everyday New Yorkers,” Adams said during a radio interview on Jan. 12.

“And we have to ask ourselves we’re already dealing with a potential of $5 [billion] to $6 billion budget deficit in the outer years, where does that money come from? That money comes from our schools, it comes from our public safety, our hospitals, our infrastructure, our ACS services,” he said, referring to the city’s child care assistance programs. “Those are our tax dollars that it’s coming from.”

Citing a lack of a “real national response,” he called the situation “inhumane” and “irresponsible.”

The city has received $8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $2 million from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), but the amount pales in comparison to the $366 million the city spent on aid to illegal immigrants in 2022, according to Budget Director Jacques Jiha.

Adams traveled to El Paso on Jan. 14, making multiple stops along the U.S.–Mexican border before heading back to New York on Jan. 15.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.