A version of this story appeared in the Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each Wednesday.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that his city has been overwhelmed by the illegal immigrant surge, which he said will cost $12 billion over three years and will force him to choose between migrants and the city’s legal residents.
The Democrat said each migrant costs $383 a day to house, feed and provide medical care, and the city has helped nearly 100,000 people since spring — including more than 57,000 migrants using city services right now.
That works out to nearly $300 million a month, and Mr. Adams said he expects the situation to worsen.
“We are past our breaking point,” he said in a dramatic demand for help. “If things do not change, our new estimates have us spending nearly $5 billion on this crisis in the current fiscal year.”
He said the cost next year could be $6 billion. The crisis cost the city $1.4 billion last year.
Mr. Adams said at that rate, caring for the migrants would cost as much as the city spends on parks, sanitation and the fire department combined.
“Twelve billion — $12 billion — that has to come from somewhere,” he said. “Every service in this city will be impacted.”
The mayor’s cry for help will likely be a watershed moment in the border chaos that began with President Biden’s inauguration. The high-profile Democrat has joined Republican lawmakers in complaining about the massive numbers of people and the costs Americans bear.
He called on Mr. Biden to declare a national emergency — an almost unthinkable step for an administration that has refused to even use the word “crisis” to describe the unprecedented surge of migrants.
Mr. Adams leaned into the migrant issue after getting heckled during a surprise visit to one of the city’s migrant facilities at the Roosevelt Hotel last week. The hotel was overcrowded with migrants, leaving them spilling onto the streets.
Neighborhood residents complained about the scene and begged the mayor to “do something.”
On Monday, Mr. Adams announced that a new tent city would be erected to hold migrants.
New York’s situation may be extreme, but it is not alone. Cities and states across the country have said they cannot handle the massive waves of people cresting into their communities in the past two years.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency Tuesday over the crush of migrants in her state.
Massachusetts and New York are right-to-shelter jurisdictions, meaning they guarantee a place to stay and other assistance. That has created a particular burden.
Critics say the jurisdictions, which also celebrate their “sanctuary” status in refusing to cooperate with deportation authorities, have invited the crisis upon themselves.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been leading a busing campaign to send some migrants in his state elsewhere and has specifically targeted sanctuary jurisdictions as destinations.
The governor said his busing plan spreads the pain of the migrant surge.
As of late last week, Texas buses had carried more than 28,000 migrants to the District of Columbia, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles.
Four hundred arrived in New York last week. That was less than 15% of the 2,900 total new migrants the city tallied for the week. Families with children are the fastest-growing demographic, Mr. Adams said.
Mr. Adams and Ms. Healey pleaded with the Biden administration to speed up work permits for illegal immigrants so they can begin to pay their own way.
“They want to work,” said Mr. Adams, adding that the migrants could fill open jobs.
Mr. Adams repeatedly referred to the illegal immigrants as “asylum seekers.”
That is not accurate.
Although some of them will file asylum applications, many others will not. Judging by historical rates, most who do claim asylum will lose their claims.
What they all have in common is that they entered the U.S. illegally.
Some 6.7 million unauthorized migrants have been encountered trying to enter the U.S. since Feb. 1, 2021. The administration hasn’t revealed how many were caught and released, but the Center for Immigration Studies says the figure is more than 2 million.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, during testimony to Congress last month, wouldn’t disclose how many have since been deported, but he said the number was at least 1,000.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.