New York City is offering one-way plane tickets to migrants who have arrived in the self-described “sanctuary” city as it struggles to deal with a migrant crisis it says is overwhelming its capacity.
The city is opening a “reticketing center” for migrants, where a spokesperson said the city will “redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants” who are seeking to travel elsewhere.
The city has already been helping migrants to travel out of the city for over a year. In June, data from Politico showed that the Big Apple spent approximately $50,000 in a one-year period to resettle dozens of migrants in different parts of the U.S. as well as other countries, including South American nations and even China. But this new center is an additional effort to shift migrants out of the city.
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“As we have said repeatedly, with more than 133,400 asylum seekers that have come through our city asking for shelter since the spring of 2022, New York City is far past its breaking point,” a spokesperson said. “For months, Mayor Adams has warned that without substantive help from our state and federal partners, this crisis could begin to play out on city streets.”
“We have opened more than 210 emergency shelters in response to this crisis, and simply put, we’re out of space,” they said.
The spokesperson said the reticketing center will also help the city triage operations for new arrivals at the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been repurposed into a shelter for migrants and saw migrants camped out on the streets around it earlier this year.
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The flight push is the latest move by the city to deal with the influx of migrants it has faced. In July, New York City rolled out posters telling migrants that “there is no guarantee we will be able to provide shelter and services to new arrivals.”
“Housing in NYC is very expensive,” the posters say.
“The cost of food, transportation, and other necessities in NYC is the highest in the United States,” they say. “Please consider another city as you make your decision about where to settle in the U.S.”
More recently, the city has started giving adult migrants 30- and 60-day notices to leave shelters in order to free up space, while enhancing casework services. The city says that as of Oct. 22, approximately 13,500 migrants have received 60-day notices, and more than 6,500 have received 30-day notices. Less than 20% of those who have exceeded those limits are still in the shelter system, a spokesperson said.
Mayor Adams has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the crisis, calling for a “decompression strategy” from the federal government, repeatedly clashing with the Biden administration on the matter.
He reasserted his position this week.
“When you are out of room, that means you out of you’re out of room. You know, every year my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to sleep at my house… that’s where we are right now. We are out of room,” he said.
Meanwhile, migrant encounters hit a monthly record in September, with more than 269,000 encounters at the southern border — taking FY 2023 to a new record in encounters.
Fox News’ Madison Alworth contributed to this report.