Last updated on Feb 23, 2024
By Jack Levy, Staff Writer
New York City (NYC) has seen an influx of over 175,000 migrants who have crossed the US-Mexico border illegally since 2022 while seeking asylum. Some of these migrants have been sent to the city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, while others have been sent by the federal government.
NYC has since been responsible for housing and caring for these migrants, housing them in various shelters and hotels. The New York Times reported that migrants were moved into James Madison High School, forcing the students and staff to temporarily relocate to another school building for a few days.
Prior to a joint legislative budget hearing in Albany, NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) released a statement that said “New Yorkers are already carrying most of the asylum seekers. It is wrong to ask them to do more. It has put the city in a precarious situation.”
Adams has asked the state government for more funding to assist with the cost of the migrants but has also allotted for NYC to remain a sanctuary city.
According to Mayor Adams, NYC announced a new program in which migrant families will be given reloadable prepaid debit cards to help with the cost of the crisis. Because the city delivers non-perishable boxes of food to migrants staying in hotels, this program would replace the time spent on delivery.
The program will save NYC $7 million per year as the cost will be lower than sending the boxes of food.
Currently, the program is in a “pilot phase” and will only be available to 500 migrant families. If the program proves to be successful, it will be made widely available to migrants.
However, debit cards can not be used everywhere. The card can only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, convenience stores and supermarkets. Anyone caught using the card for spending on items that are deemed unnecessary will be removed from the program.
Many New Yorkers are upset that this crisis has been ongoing for years and the strategies used to assist migrants have not yet been utilized on the rest of NYC’s underprivileged residents.
“We don’t send homeless people to stay in hotels and send them boxes of food or give them debit cards. They need to go to shelters,” senior business major Vincent Pirolo said. “We obviously can’t take in so many if we’re packing hotels. I remember hearing of a couple who had to cancel their wedding because the hotel they booked was filled with migrants.”
This incident occurred in May after a hotel canceled 37 room reservations to accommodate 60 migrants sent by Mayor Adams.
“If it will save money and allow them to buy specifically what they want and need then I have no problem with it,” junior business major Sal Groe said. “I just don’t know if this is permanent. Like, what happens when they leave the hotels? Where are they going to go? How long will they get to use these debit cards? All of these solutions are temporary but we still don’t know what’s going to happen long term. How can one city take in hundreds of thousands of people and expect no problems?”
New York is not the only city affected by migrants. Various cities across the country have been trying to accommodate them as well.
The massive amount of people crossing the border is undoubtedly going to make it difficult for cities to take more migrants in and house them.
While cities take in and are responsible for the majority of these migrants, the situation at the border is left in the hands of the federal government. City government officials are working to solve the crisis surrounding the well-being of both the nation and the migrants.
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