New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that his administration is putting out new posters telling migrants to “consider another city” and warning of high costs for housing, food and transportation in the Big Apple as it struggles to deal with its share of illegal immigrants.
“We have no more room in the city,” Adams stressed at a press conference, calling for economic support from the federal government and a “decompression strategy” across the country.
Adams rolled out the posters, which outline how over 90,000 migrants have hit the city since April last year, and said, “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,” it says.
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“Please consider another city as you make your decision about where to settle in the U.S.,” said the city, which supporters of large-scale immigration have noted holds the Statue of Liberty.
As of July 16, the city says it has over 54,800 migrants in care, with 188 sites set up to accommodate them. There were more than 2,800 migrants entering NYC care last week alone. It’s a small number compared to the hundreds of thousands that hit the border each month, but it has left the city overwhelmed — with Adams having called for federal help for months.
Adams said the flyers “honestly communicate our city’s situation to those thinking of coming here.” He said the posters will be handed out on the border and put on social media.
“This will help to reduce disinformation and is another effort we are making in the absence of federal action,” he said.
Adams also announced that adult migrants will also be given 60 days notice to find alternative housing, accompanied by “intensive” case management services.
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New York City has been a main destination for many of the millions of migrants that have hit the southern border as part of the historic migrant crisis since 2001.
That has been exacerbated by efforts by Texas to send migrants to “sanctuary” jurisdictions, including NYC, as part of its own efforts to relieve the pressure on the border state. Adams and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have argued that it is right that so-called sanctuary cities bear the brunt of the migrant crisis that Republicans believe such jurisdictions have encouraged.
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“They attacked the previous administration’s efforts to try to have border security. And so that’s the policies they’re staking out,” DeSantis said last month. “And then what? When they have to deal with some of the fruits of that, they all of a sudden become very, very upset about that?”
Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have feuded over the migrant transports. On Wednesday, Adams accused border states of carrying out a “funnel system” to send migrants to cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Houston and Chicago.
“This cannot continue, it is not sustainable and we are not going to pretend it is sustainable,” he said.
The posters come as official Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show that there were more than 144,000 migrant encounters at the border in June alone. That number is down from prior Junes and from May, and marks the lowest numbers since February 2021 — but numbers still remain high compared to pre-2021 numbers.