Eric Adams Heads to Mexican Border, as the Migrant Crisis Continues - The New York Times

Mayor Eric Adams is traveling from New York City to El Paso connected Saturday to sojourn the borderline amid a situation successful which thousands of migrants from Latin America person been bused to the north.

The travel comes 1 time aft Mr. Adams said helium expected the influx of migrants to outgo the metropolis arsenic overmuch arsenic $2 cardinal — importantly higher than erstwhile estimates. The terms tag could beryllium “anywhere from $1.5 cardinal to $2 billion,” helium told Caribbean Power Jam Radio connected Friday. Previously, successful November, arsenic the watercourse of migrants into the metropolis slowed, Mr. Adams said it would not outgo the metropolis $1 cardinal arsenic had been initially feared, acknowledgment to national aid.

The costs associated with taking successful truthful galore migrants could exacerbate the imaginable fund shortfall the metropolis is facing, Mr. Adams said.

“That wealth comes from our schools,” Mr. Adams said. “It comes from our nationalist safety, our hospitals, our infrastructure.”

“Those are our taxation dollars that it’s coming from,” helium added.

The details of Mr. Adams’s one-night trip, announced precocious Friday day with fewer specifics, were not instantly clear. His bureau said helium was expected to marque “multiple stops astatine and adjacent the U.S. confederate borderline arsenic New York City continues to look an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers.” He plans to talk to reporters connected Sunday.

Last spring, the Republican governors of Florida and Texas began sending a surge of radical who had crossed the confederate borderline seeking asylum to cities with Democratic elected leaders — New York, Washington, Chicago — saying they were placing the load of the borderline situation connected left-leaning localities with alleged sanctuary metropolis policies.

Since then, implicit 36,000 radical person gone done New York’s system, and astir 24,000 are inactive successful the city, according to the latest figures from the mayor’s office.

In the fall, nether the nationalist spotlight, Mr. Adams directed the erection of an 84,400-square-foot structure lodging halfway for azygous migrant men connected Randalls Island. But President Biden’s medication shifted its migration policies to expel caller arrivals backmost to Mexico, easing those pressures and leaving the Randalls Island halfway little than fractional full. It was dismantled a period aft its opening.

The Biden medication has besides relied connected a pandemic measure, known arsenic Title 42, that allows U.S. officials to rapidly deport migrants who person crossed into the state illegally.

This month, Mr. Biden announced 1 of his astir stringent migration measures yet: a argumentation that volition contradict circumstantial groups of migrants the accidental to use for asylum if they transverse the borderline without authorization, alternatively sending them to Mexico.

Those measures were applied to radical from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba — the 4 biggest sources of migration.

But successful a concession designed to soften the stroke of the caller restrictions, Mr. Biden said that arsenic galore arsenic 30,000 radical per period from the 4 countries would beryllium fixed the accidental to migrate legally to the United States. In bid to bash so, however, they would person to beryllium capable to spend a level ticket, get a sponsor, download an app, walk a inheritance cheque and conscionable different requirements.

To assistance negociate the continued influx of migrants, a 153,300-square-foot processing halfway with a capableness of 1,000 opened connected Wednesday successful El Paso, Customs and Border Protection officials said. But connected Saturday, it was not astatine capacity, according to a gross officer. The caller halfway opened astatine a clip erstwhile the fig of migrants who person been done processing successful the country has decreased significantly. This week, 750 migrants were released, compared to 3,500 2 weeks ago, according to the metropolis of El Paso.

The diminished numbers were evident successful downtown El Paso, wherever hundreds were milling astir and sleeping successful the streets adjacent the autobus presumption conscionable a fewer weeks ago. Now that country is empty, and the hub for migrants is adjacent Sacred Heart Church, wherever astir 60 to 100 radical congregate daily, though numbers are down, said Shannon Long, a religion employee. “Most present could not assertion asylum owed to Title 42 and are not definite wherever to spell present oregon what to do,” she said.

The metropolis stopped utilizing its normal halfway arsenic a structure past week, but is inactive providing portable restrooms and a autobus adjacent the religion for men to slumber successful erstwhile the somesthesia drops (women, children and immoderate fathers are allowed to slumber wrong the church).

Mr. Adams, a erstwhile constabulary serviceman who has called himself the “future of the Democratic Party,” has grown progressively captious of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis. He has repeatedly called for important national backing to assistance the metropolis wage for shelter, nutrient and schoolhouse services for migrants.

The surge past twelvemonth “impacted our metropolis straight because, unfortunately, different municipalities chose to nonstop radical lone to New York City,” Mr. Adams said during a quality league this month.

The metropolis not lone needs to location them, helium said, but besides supply food, clothing, acquisition and wellness care.

“It’s not lone unfair to New York City, it’s unfair to Washington, to Chicago, to El Paso,” helium said. “All of these cities should not beryllium handling a nationalist crisis. This is simply a humanitarian situation that was created by man, and antheral needs to hole it.”

Emma Fitzsimmons and John De Frank contributed reporting.