With a plan titled,“The Road Forward: Blueprint to Address New York City’s Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis, Mayor Eric Adams is establishing a "blueprint" as a strategy for the city to handle the migrant crisis.It is a 24/7 Migrant Center, which will include training migrants to work once their authorizations are granted by the federal government and helping them to resettle in other areas. Migrants will also have access to legal services. It has not been specified exactly where the center will be located.
During a March 7 news conference at City Hall on Tuesday morning, Mayor Adams said the center will transform the city’s response to the immigrant influx from treating it as an emergency to more of a “steady state of operation.”
“This blueprint that we are releasing today highlights what we have accomplished since the crisis [began],” Adams said. “It’s also going to show the changes we have put in place to move from an emergency response to a steady state of operation.”
Since last spring, 49,900 migrants have arrived in New York City, 30,900 of whom are in the city’s care, according to City Hall. Adams said the city has spent $654 million on sheltering, feeding and providing other services to asylum seekers as of February; the city is projected to spend $4.2 billion between the current and coming fiscal years on the emergency.
The aim of the office is to aid migrants to become self sufficient as soon as possible and then find employment. Adams said some of those asylum seekers will be moved out of the city but he wouldn't say where.
"We're gonna move to toward long term housing and settlements including resettlement to pre-vetted cities and municipalities that welcome asylum seekers," Adams said. "There are many cities within the state and across the country that want to help and we want to create the pathway to do that.. please don't ask which cities. I don't need you running to the cities and stopping asylum seekers there... we'll tell you when they get there, I know you like pitting cities against each other."
The city will continue to advocate for the state and federal governments to provide additional financial and operational support.
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