New York Mayor Eric Adams has issued a fresh warning about the illegal immigration crisis gripping the Big Apple, saying that the “cold reality” is that federal help to deal with the influx isn’t coming anytime soon and cities have to bear the burden alone.
“We did not walk out from D.C. with any level of optimism that anything is going to drastically change,” Mr. Adams said at a Dec. 8 press conference in New York City, a day after returning from the nation’s capital, where he asked for help with funding for the throngs of asylum-seekers that have flooded New York City.
“It is clear that for the time being, this crisis is going to be carried by the cities,” he said, while reiterating a version of his often repeated refrain that “the cavalry isn’t coming,” saying that the “cold reality” is that “help is not on the way in the immediate future.”
Pleas for Federal Help
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, is among a group of five sanctuary city mayors who recently asked President Joe Biden for $5 billion in federal funds to help them cope with the crushing costs of the influx of illegal immigrants into their communities.“Right now, Denver is spending almost $2 million a week on shelter, New York City has surpassed $1.7 billion in spending and Chicago has spent over $320 million,” reads a recent joint letter to President Biden, signed by the five cities’ mayors: Brandon Johnson of Chicago, Mike Johnston of Denver, Sylvester Turner of Houston, Karen Bass of Los Angeles—and Mr. Adams.
With record numbers of people pouring across the southern border into the United States, shelter space has dwindled in communities bearing the brunt of the influx. Illegal immigrants are sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter in New York City, and the number of asylum seekers arriving in Denver has increased tenfold, squeezing shelter capacity.
Mr. Adams and the other mayors wrote in their joint letter that relying on municipal budgets isn’t enough and that they’ve been forced to cut essential city services to provide for the needs of people who entered the country illegally.
During his trip to Washington on Thursday, Mr. Adams met with Congressional leaders and members of the Biden administration to discuss additional funding.
He said that the best hope for help for cities affected by the crisis would likely come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“There was a real sense of collaboration from the FEMA administrator to assist us in these very challenging times in all of these cities,” Mr. Adams said.
Cuts to Services
Spending related to the migrant influx has forced authorities in New York City to make sharp cuts to services—including education and policing.Overall, the city has implemented a 5 percent across-the-board cut affecting every city agency, with most of New York City’s public libraries no longer staying open on Sundays, its universal pre-kindergarten program being squeezed, and sanitation services set to suffer. Cuts to public safety are also poised to be painful.
Mr. Adams’s budget director said at a recent briefing that the next five classes at the police academy would be canceled and that the number of law enforcement officers will drop from 33,541 to roughly 29,000.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry expressed shock and dismay at the deep cuts to policing, saying that they would wreck decades of progress on public safety.
“This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets. Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ‘80s and ’90s,” Mr. Hendry said in a statement.
“We cannot go back there. We need every level of government to work together to find a way to support police officers and protect New York City’s thirty years of public safety progress,” he added.
The cuts come as roughly 143,000 illegal immigrants have come to New York City since the spring of 2022, with over 65,000 still in the city’s shelters.
