New York City is preparing to shelter around 1,000 illegal immigrants in the parking lot of a mental hospital as the city continues to take on new arrivals.
At a Wednesday press conference, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced his administration had selected the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens as the location of the city’s newest humanitarian emergency response and relief center. He said this new shelter location will be used to house approximately 1,000 males who are seeking asylum within the United States.
Officials said the Creedmoor migrant center should be up and running at some point next month.
Mr. Adams said New York City is currently sheltering more than 52,600 asylum seekers and “continues to receive thousands of asylum seekers each week.” The influx comes as several border state officials, including Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have been busing border crossers to other parts of the country.
In May, the Adams administration opened an official arrival center to consolidate all the services for non-citizens arriving in the city.
New York City has been a popular destination for illegal immigrants in recent years, in part, because the city deems itself a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, meaning city officials will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities that might arrest or deport illegal immigrants. Mr. Abbott has deliberately directed buses to sanctuary jurisdictions like New York City and said the strategy has exposed the hypocrisy of sanctuary jurisdictions that balk at the prospect of having to actually take in illegal immigrants.
The Adams administration has looked for new shelter locations over the past year, including renting out hotels, opening up a cruise ship terminal, and a former police academy building. But as more people have arrived, the Adams administration has also tried to slow the influx of new arrivals and send the people already in the shelter system away.
Earlier this spring, the New York City mayor petitioned to suspend the city’s “right to shelter” requirements. He also tried his own busing strategy, attempting to send some people to neighboring communities who have bristled at the strategy.
In May, after New York City prepared to relocate 340 adult males to his county, Rockland County Executive Ed Day said: “We have a situation where the Mayor of New York decided he wanted [to be] a sanctuary [city], and he got it. And now he realized he bit off more than he can chew, and he can’t handle it.”
Adams Calls for Federal Response
At the Wednesday press conference, Mr. Adams reiterated a call for a broader federal strategy to address the number of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers that have arrived in New York City.
“We have stepped up and led the nation, but this national crisis should not fall on cities alone to navigate. We need a national solution here,” Mr. Adams said.
“As we have consistently communicated, this is a humanitarian crisis unlike any in recent memory,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom added. “New York City is continuing to find creative ways to support asylum seekers, but we know it is an unsustainable effort absent a national decompression strategy from the federal government. As we open this space as part of a temporary solution, we will continue to call on more support from all levels of government.”
Last week, Mr. Adams announced that some adult asylum seekers without children in the city’s shelter system would be given a 60-day notice to find other accommodations in order to make room for families with children. Those receiving the 60-day notices are also given added assistance to find somewhere for them to stay, after which they have to apply for a new shelter placement.
Dr. Ted Long, senior vice president of the city’s public hospital system, which oversees the migrant shelters, said Wednesday that about 100 migrants have been given their 60-day notices.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
