Inspectors with the Department of Buildings were called Wednesday afternoon to investigate reports of an illegal conversion inside a two-story commercial building on East Kingsbridge Road in the Fordham neighborhood. After arriving, they found that one of the stores in the building had been converted into illegal sleeping quarters.

The DOB said there were 34 beds found on the first floor, and another 11 beds tightly packed together in the basement. Inspectors also found extension cords, e-bikes, space heaters and hotplates on both floors.

A vacate order was issued due to what the DOB said were “hazardous, life-threatening conditions” inside the building, as well as a lack of natural light and ventilation, as well as severe overcrowding.

An official with the city’s Office of Emergency Management said they were coordinating a response to the situation, assessing any urgent needs of those living at the illegal shelter. They would also facilitate referrals to asylum seeker services if necessary.

Some of the migrant men who had been living inside the building were seen later in the evening collecting their belongings and loading them onto a bus. One of those residents said he and around 50 roommates would shower at a gym across the street.

Those who lived in the area said the illegal shelter was no secret. A neighbor who spoke with the men daily said they had been paying around $300-$600 a month to stay there.

“It wasn’t safe down there,” he said, referring to the basement where some of the beds were found. “No toilet, no bath, no nothing.”

The landlord was issued two violations for failure to maintain the building and for occupying the building contrary to city records. It is the same landlord who operated a similar illegal shelter for migrants at a furniture store in South Richmond Hill, in Queens.

On Tuesday, the DOB ordered Sarr’s Wholesale Furniture vacated due to “severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions,” and further investigation revealed 74 individuals had been living in the basement, reportedly sleeping in shifts to accommodate everyone, according to the landlord who spoke with NBC New York.

When inspectors arrived on scene, they “found that the first floor commercial space in the building and the cellar had been illegally converted into sleeping quarters, with 14 bunk beds and 13 bed tightly packed on both floors.” Additionally, inspectors found that plumbing work was done without permits and there was no means of exiting, ventilation or natural sunlight for the migrants living there.

Ebou Sarr, a migrant himself who runs the furniture store, said he felt sorry for the migrants, most of whom are from his native Senegal in West Africa and were trying to make a living in the U.S. — but had difficulty finding a shelter after the city limited the amount of time that single migrants can stay in city-run shelters to 30 days.

“When they started coming to me, telling me their stories, I started helping them. I didn’t want to do it. I thought about it twice,” said Sarr. “It broke my heart but I’m proud of them, they’re all hard-working people.”

He added that the basement shelter had rules, like no cooking on-site. Residents paid what they could each month for a place to sleep, and got breakfast, lunch and dinner provided by Sarr.

“They’re my people. I have to do something about it, so I started taking them in,” Sarr tearfully said outside the shop. “The city is saying they have no place for these people. It’s not true…This is what we’re trying to avoid, for them to be out in the cold.”

The shocking discovery came after a neighbor called 311 to report e-bikes parked near the side of her property and FDNY inspectors looked into that complaint. The neighbor told NBC New York she was scared for her and her family’s safety due to the recent fires that broke out due to defective lithium-ion batteries that garnered headlines.

The neighbor said she believes the unsanctioned migrant shelter in Queens had been running for at least two months.

FDNY fire prevention inspectors checking a tip about a collection of e-bike batteries posing a potential hazard, discovered 40 migrants sleeping in a Queens basement behind a furniture store, according to three city officials and the landlord himself.

Upon entry to investigate the reported fire risk at the South Richmond Hill home on Liberty Avenue, inspectors were surprised to find the migrants in cramped conditions, the officials said. The city Department of Buildings ordered Sarr’s Wholesale Furniture vacated due to “severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions,” spokesperson David Maggiotto said Tuesday.

Further investigation revealed that 74 individuals had been living in the basement, reportedly sleeping in shifts to accommodate everyone, according to the landlord, who spoke with NBC New York.

According to the Department of Buildings, when inspectors arrived on scene, they “found that the first floor commercial space in the building and the cellar had been illegally converted into sleeping quarters, with 14 bunk beds and 13 bed tightly packed on both floors.” Additionally, inspectors found that plumbing work was done without permits and there was no means of exiting, ventilation or natural sunlight for the migrants living there.

Officials said the FDNY issued a vacate orders for the premises. The DOB also issued a vacate order due to unsafe conditions found at the basement, including overcrowding and fire hazards identified by the FDNY. The city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) referred people in need of shelter for further assistance.

The DOB issued two violations to the landlord — 132-03 Liberty Avenue Management Corporation — for illegal work without a permit and for occupying the two-story mixed-used building contrary to city records.

The shocking discovery came after a neighbor called 311 to report e-bikes parked near the side of her property and FDNY inspectors looked into that complaint. The neighbor told NBC New York she was scared for her and her family’s safety due to the recent fires that broke out due to defective lithium-ion batteries that garnered headlines.

“One morning I came out here to go to work, I see about 20 e-bikes,” said the neighbor, who did not wish to be identified. “I just couldn’t do it no more. People running in and out of there, I haven’t gotten a wink of sleep.”

The neighbor said she believes the unsanctioned migrant shelter had been running for at least two months.

Ebou Sarr, a migrant himself who runs the furniture store, said he felt sorry for the migrants, most of whom are from his native Senegal in West Africa and were trying to make a living in the U.S. — but had difficulty finding a shelter after the city limited the amount of time that single migrants can stay in city-run shelters to 30 days.

Although they can reapply for shelter at a reticketing center in the East Village, the landlord said the migrants he was helping were tired of waiting and sleeping outdoors and this was the best option he could provide for them. The landlord stressed that the city was simply not providing another alternative for the men who had nowhere else to go.

He said he accepted money from them when they could pay, but he didn’t charge them rent.

“When they started coming to me, telling me their stories, I started helping them. I didn’t want to do it. I thought about it twice,” said Sarr. “It broke my heart but I’m proud of them, they’re all hard-working people.”

He added that the basement shelter had rules, like no cooking on-site. Residents paid what they could each month for a place to sleep, and got breakfast, lunch and dinner provided by Sarr.

“They’re my people. I have to do something about it, so I started taking them in,” Sarr tearfully said outside the shop. “The city is saying they have no place for these people. It’s not true.”

One migrant who lived in the basement said he slept on the subway Monday night and wasn’t sure where he’d be able to go Tuesday night.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams addressed the issue Tuesday afternoon, saying the city “cannot create desperate situations.” The city said it would offer the migrants a ride to a place in the Bronx where they can wait for a new shelter bed. Other migrants said they were calling friends and anyone else they knew to find a place to spend the night.

The landlord continued to tell NBC New York that the basement with beds was the best he could provide. The migrants apparently slept in shifts and had access to only two bathrooms, although the landlord said he was in the process of finding porta-potties to better accommodate the migrants.

The city’s OEM which has been operating the city’s emergency shelter system for migrants, said it is assisting the now displaced tenants.

The discovery came amid an influx of migrants that has strained the city’s shelter system.

New York is expanding a curfew to additional migrant shelters, an announcement that comes after violent incidents attributed to migrant shelter residents gained national attention in recent weeks.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration will impose an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew at 20 migrant shelters starting Monday, after initially placing the restrictions at four other locations. There will be exceptions for people working night jobs.

The curfew impacts about 3,600 migrants, with the largest of the emergency centers housing roughly 1,000 migrants in Long Island City, Queens. City officials initially placed a curfew on four shelters last month in response to neighborhood complaints.

The additional curfews are set to be put in place after a spate of migrant-related violence and crime has prompted increasingly dire rhetoric from city and police officials. However, the mayor’s office and City Councilmember Joann Ariola emphasized that there was no connection between the recent crimes linked to migrants and Monday’s curfew expansion.

A 15-year-old teen from Venezuela was arrested Friday for opening fire in Times Square while fleeing from police after being stopped by security for suspected shoplifting. The shooting injured a tourist from Brazil.

A video showing a group of migrants brawling with police in Times Square last month also went viral and led to several arrests.

The total of 24 migrant shelters now subject to the restrictions represents a fraction of the more than 200 such facilities the city operates to house some 66,000 newly arrived asylum seekers. The city’s traditional homeless shelters have long had similar curfews, as has been the city’s policy all along.

A spokesperson for City Hall acknowledged the curfew practice, saying its implementation would allow for greater efficiency.

“Beginning this week, we will be instituting a curfew policy at our HPD emergency sites, in line with curfews already in place at traditional DHS shelters and NYCEM respite sites that serve migrants and longtime New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. This policy will allow for more efficient capacity management for migrants in the city’s care,” the statement read.

New York law enforcement officials say the four men in ICE custody in Arizona are not the same four men believed to be involved in last month’s attack on NYPD officers in Times Square, despite the federal agency’s claim.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office put out a statement Wednesday stating the detainees were not connected.

“The Manhattan D.A.’s Office was informed yesterday by HSI that the four individuals they took into custody were not affiliated with the New York City investigation,” the statement said. “To date, we have not received any indication from federal authorities that they have detained anyone related to our case.”

The development comes hours after ICE released a statement saying it picked up four suspects Monday in Phoenix who were “…believed to be fleeing the state of New York from their suspected involvement in a coordinated assault on multiple New York City Police Department (NYPD) Officers.”

An ICE spokesperson said they’ll be processed for immigration violations.

New York law enforcement officials say the men in Arizona are Venezuelan; they were traveling under assumed names, and carrying what was believed to be stolen property on them. But the officials stress they are not thought to be connected to the Times Square attack.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had opted not to request bail for several suspects as his office worked to confirm identities. The men, who face felony assault and other charges, were thus free to leave after their arraignments. They were, however, required to return to the city for their next scheduled court date on March 4.

According to authorities, six suspects have been arrested following the caught-on-camera beating of the two officers. One is being held at Rikers. Police think at least 13 people were involved.

Bragg’s office had been expected to present the case to a grand jury on Tuesday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to present charges to a grand jury on Tuesday after two NYPD officers were attacked by a group that included migrants in Times Square last weekend.

In a statement issued one week after the attack, Bragg this weekend also acknowledged some of those responsible have not been identified or arrested. According to authorities, seven suspects have been arrested following the caught-on-camera beating of the two officers. Police think at least 13 people were involved.

“Our office continues to work with law enforcement to bring everyone responsible for these heinous attacks to justice. It is clear from video and other evidence that some of the most culpable individuals have not yet been identified or arrested, and we are working hand in hand with the NYPD to find and hold them accountable for their despicable acts,” Bragg’s latest statement read, in part.

The DA’s comments come on the heels of an unusual Friday when Bragg dodged reporter questions before ultimately holding a press conference hours later. In that briefing, he defended his decision to not request bail for several suspects, saying he’s proceeding cautiously to ensure the proper suspects are identified.

The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. He also said the office expects to get further information in the next few days.

Seven suspects have been arrested in the attack so far. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held at Rikers.

Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

“Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates.” The next court date is set for March 4.

More than a half-dozen suspects in a cellphone robbery pattern targeting dozens of victims in recent months have been arrested, according to the NYPD, with the ringleader of the operation still on the run.

A Bronx apartment that allegedly served as headquarters for the wide-ranging cellphone robbery crew was raided early Monday. The scheme was based around a network of thieves using mopeds in hold-ups that occurred in four of the five boroughs, police said. Only Staten Island has been without cases.

Police said they believe they can link one crew to more than 60 robberies across the city. Police searched a building at 2790 Bronx Park East and found stolen goods including cell phones, some of which the suspects tried to hide and toss out windows as police entered the building, the NYPD said.

Surveillance video showed the thieves at work, with many of the targets being women walking alone getting robbed of cellphones, purses and shopping bags.

Three people were arrested Monday morning in addition to numerous others who were charged in recent weeks, including Yan Jiminez, Anthony Ramos, Richard Saledo, Beike Jiminez, Maria Manaura and Cleyber Andrade. Many of the alleged thieves are believed to be migrants living in city shelters, according to city investigators, and most of whom are originally from South America.

Some of the robbery crew charged last month were released without bail including Jiminez, Saledo, and Ramos. Police said catching up with the thieves was complicated, with many of them having been arrested before only to be released. Adding to that difficulty, some of the suspects were described as so-called “ghost criminals,” which NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said meant they had “no phone, no social media” and officials couldn’t even be sure of their names or dates of birth.

The suspects were allegedly part of the robbery teams that would snatch cell phones or rob victims, and then bring the stolen goods back to the Bronx building which served as a stash house, the NYPD said. The suspects would get their marching orders via social media from supposed ringleader Victor Parra, who would pay the migrants for the items they swiped.

Police said Parra, who is originally from Venezuela, remains on the run. Among those arrested in the overnight Bronx raid include the technician who helps Parra drain the victims’ bank accounts through their phones, according to investigators.

Police said they are looking for more people connected to the case, focused on making at least seven more arrests. Investigators added that some of the stolen phones have been tracked to other U.S. cities like Miami and Houston, while others have made it all the to Colombia, where they are wiped clean so they can be used again.

Attorney information for the suspects arrested was not immediately known.

In the city’s latest crime statistics released Monday, overall crime across the city continued to decline in January, but there was a small increase in robberies. Compared to the first month of 2023, there were substantial drops in murder, rape, burglary, and felony assault, NYPD’s record showed. Robberies went up from 1,345 to 1,417, or a 5.4% increase.

Mayor Eric Adams said it’s a tiny portion of the roughly 170,000 or so migrants who have relocated to New York that are allegedly tied to the crimes, but he still vowed to root out the bad apples.

“Those who commit crimes will be treated like anyone else,” Adams said.

The NYPD’s latest focus on petty crimes come as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg prepares to bring the case of migrants allegedly attacking NYPD officers in Times Square to a grand jury. The officers were OK, but the caught-on-camera melee prompted widespread condemnation.

The incident was caught on video showing as many as 14 people hitting and kicking two police officers in front of a migrant shelter as the officers tried to arrest a man for disorderly conduct. Four of the suspects arrested and charged in that case were released with no bail after court appearances in Manhattan.

Sources said four defendants have since traveled by bus to California using aliases, although their release did not require them to stay in New York City.  The men are due back in court on March 4. 

A fifth suspect Yohenry Brito, 24, was later arrested in the alleged attack and was ordered held on Rikers on $50,000 bail.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has faced criticism over his handling of the assault case including from top NYPD officials who asked why migrants with few ties to the community would be released without bail.

”You want to know why our cops are getting assaulted? There are no consequences,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said last week.

Following the attack on the police officers, Bragg held a news conference to condemn the actions of the suspects but said prosecutors moved cautiously on bail as they worked to charge the right suspects with the right crimes.

“We make decisions based on the evidence we have before us at the time,” Bragg said.

The debate over bail for migrants accused of felonies comes amid the broader debate over the border crisis and how New York City has seen more than 150,000 migrants enter the city – many in need of housing and assistance. 

NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted a statement on social media after Monday’s Bronx arrests that “…most migrants come to NYC in search of a better life.  Sadly some come to commit crimes.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for the migrants involved in the assault on the officers to be deported. However, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say New York does not share information with them about migrants accused or convicted of crimes and at what times they appear in court.

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In a statement issued one week after the attack, Bragg on Saturday also acknowledged some of those most responsible have not been identified or arrested. According to authorities, seven suspects have been arrested following the caught-on-camera beating of the two officers. Police think at least 13 people were involved.

“Our office continues to work with law enforcement to bring everyone responsible for these heinous attacks to justice. It is clear from video and other evidence that some of the most culpable individuals have not yet been identified or arrested, and we are working hand in hand with the NYPD to find and hold them accountable for their despicable acts,” Bragg’s weekend statement read, in part.

Bragg’s office emailed out the statement late Saturday along with a statement from the NYPD commissioner, which denounced the attackers and promised to work “tirelessly” alongside the DA to arrest all suspects involved in the attack.

The DA’s latest statement comes on the heels of an unusual Friday when Bragg dodged reporter questions before ultimately holding press conference hours later. In that briefing, he defended his decision to not request bail for several suspects, saying he’s proceeding cautiously to ensure the proper suspects are identified.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined early Friday afternoon to answer questions from NBC New York regarding the case and why several migrants accused of assaulting police were released without bond. He did not respond when asked if he thought not requesting bail was a mistake, instead walking past reporters without saying much at all.

Seemingly caught off-guard by the questions, Bragg offered only one answer: “We’ll speak in court.”

The DA was attending a law enforcement conference which reporters were invited to by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has made it clear she disagrees with the decision to let the suspects go free without bail, and has called for the attackers to be deported. Hochul said the problem was not about weak bail laws, but rather the failure to use the laws in place.

“All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” said Hochul.

Bragg and Hochul met behind closed doors, but he was noticeably absent when the governor emerged for a news conference with several other district attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester. Hochul confirmed that she discussed the incident with Bragg, adding that she was “confident there will be more charges brought.”

Hours later, Bragg convened an early evening press conference to try and clarify his position — insisting he would not tolerate attacks on police, following days of criticism and silence from his office.

“We do not tolerate or accept assaults on police officers. I watched the tape this week, despicable behavior and it sickened me and outraged me,” Bragg said.

The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. Bragg told reporters he did not request bail because he is proceeding cautiously to ensure they have the proper suspects identified in the case.

“That is what is required to secure a conviction and get accountability and send the right people to jail. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bragg said, noting that the one who was “deemed to have committed the most serious crimes is currently on Rikers.”

He also said the office has received more information than it did after Saturday, and he expects to get further information in the next few days. What remains unclear is if Bragg has any hesitation or concerns about whether they have arrested and charged the right suspects, even if they were not held on bail.

Times Square Feb 1

Migrants in NYPD Times Square attack board buses to California after release on bail: sources

NYPD Jan 31

‘Cowards': 7 arrested in Times Square attack on NYPD officers

Seven suspects have been arrested for the attack so far, and police officials have said at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held on Rikers.

Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

“Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

Federal officials said that in many cases, New York officials do not alert them when an undocumented defendant is being released from court or jail. A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said bail was not sought in part because they were still sorting out which defendants committed which acts during the assault.

An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates”; their next court date in New York was scheduled for March 4.

Police do not track crime committed by undocumented residents, but arrest records show residents living at 30 of the city’s 200 migrant shelters have been arrested more than 1,200 times in the last year. City records show the top crimes include petit larceny, assault, grand larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and robbery.

Former NYPD Chief of Department and current NBC New York consultant Terry Monahan said that while the vast majority of migrants are coming to the U.S. to seek better lives, crime is a growing problem.

“A lot of times it shows it’s a first arrest for that individual because it’s the first time they’re here. And they’re getting sent right back out on the streets to do it again,” Monahan said.

Gov. Hochul has shared harsh words for the migrants arrested.

“Get them all — send them back,” the Democrat said Thursday. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”

The lack of consequences for the suspects has sparked police pushback.

“Why aren’t they in jail right now? They brutally attacked a police officer and a lieutenant. Our criminal justice system is upside down,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

Details of the Times Square attack

Authorities say the caught-on-camera brawl erupted as cops tried to break up a group of migrants in front of a shelter on 42nd Street, steps from the New Amsterdam Theatre. Police officials said Thursday that it is believed at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers.

Multiple law enforcement sources said it all started when a couple of people walked up to the officers and said there was a group being disorderly, causing issues.

Police went to check it out, and the situation escalated quickly. Video obtained by NBC New York shows the moments before the beatdown, as a police officer and a lieutenant were talking to the group. They put their hands on one person and suddenly, the cops are surrounded. They stumble down 42nd Street, where the officers fall to the ground, before being kicked, stomped and punched in the face and head. 

One lieutenant suffered a cut to his face. The other officer has injuries to the side of his body.

“I’m appalled at this. The city, we have had enough,” said Chell. “The shame of this is they’re trying to keep this city safe, and they get attacked by eight cowards who are kicking them in the face, taking cheap shots.”

Those arrested have been accused of assault or attempted assault on a police officer and gang assault. Several are charged additionally with obstructing governmental administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not commented on whether they will attempt to detain the defendants in this case. Camille Joseph Varlack, the chief of staff for Mayor Adams, said NYC’s sanctuary city status does not prevent police from coordinating with ICE.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Violence at migrant shelters has been a burgeoning problem as of late, prompting demands for fresh quality of life initiatives in certain neighborhoods. The city’s largest shelter is on Randall’s Island, where a deadly fight broke out earlier this month. Three people were arraigned Tuesday in that case.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined early Friday afternoon to answer questions from NBC New York regarding the case and why several migrants accused of assaulting police were released without bond. He did not respond when asked if he thought not requesting bail was a mistake, instead walking past reporters without saying much at all.

Seemingly caught off-guard by the questions, Bragg offered only one answer: “We’ll speak in court.”

The DA was attending a law enforcement conference which reporters were invited to by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has made it clear she disagrees with the decision to let the suspects go free without bail, and has called for the attackers to be deported. Hochul said the problem was not about weak bail laws, but rather the failure to use the laws in place.

“All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” said Hochul.

Bragg and Hochul met behind closed doors, but he was noticeably absent when the governor emerged for a news conference with several other district attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester. Hochul confirmed that she discussed the incident with Bragg, adding that she was “confident there will be more charges brought.”

Hours later, Bragg convened an early evening press conference to try and clarify his position — insisting he would not tolerate attacks on police, following days of criticism and silence from his office.

“We do not tolerate or accept assaults on police officers. I watched the tape this week, despicable behavior and it sickened me and outraged me,” Bragg said.

The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. Bragg told reporters he did not request bail because he is proceeding cautiously to ensure they have the proper suspects identified in the case.

“That is what is required to secure a conviction and get accountability and send the right people to jail. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bragg said, noting that the one who was “deemed to have committed the most serious crimes is currently on Rikers.”

He also said the office has received more information than it did after Saturday, and he expects to get further information in the next few days. What remains unclear is if Bragg has any hesitation or concerns about whether they have arrested and charged the right suspects, even if they were not held on bail.

Times Square Feb 1

Migrants in NYPD Times Square attack board buses to California after release on bail: sources

NYPD Jan 31

‘Cowards': 7 arrested in Times Square attack on NYPD officers

Seven suspects have been arrested for the attack so far, and police officials have said at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held on Rikers.

Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

“Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

Federal officials said that in many cases, New York officials do not alert them when an undocumented defendant is being released from court or jail. A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said bail was not sought in part because they were still sorting out which defendants committed which acts during the assault.

An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates”; their next court date in New York was scheduled for March 4.

Police do not track crime committed by undocumented residents, but arrest records show residents living at 30 of the city’s 200 migrant shelters have been arrested more than 1,200 times in the last year. City records show the top crimes include petit larceny, assault, grand larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and robbery.

Former NYPD Chief of Department and current NBC New York consultant Terry Monahan said that while the vast majority of migrants are coming to the U.S. to seek better lives, crime is a growing problem.

“A lot of times it shows it’s a first arrest for that individual because it’s the first time they’re here. And they’re getting sent right back out on the streets to do it again,” Monahan said.

Gov. Hochul has shared harsh words for the migrants arrested.

“Get them all — send them back,” the Democrat said Thursday. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”

The lack of consequences for the suspects has sparked police pushback.

“Why aren’t they in jail right now? They brutally attacked a police officer and a lieutenant. Our criminal justice system is upside down,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

Details of the Times Square attack

Authorities say the caught-on-camera brawl erupted as cops tried to break up a group of migrants in front of a shelter on 42nd Street, steps from the New Amsterdam Theatre. Police officials said Thursday that it is believed at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers.

Multiple law enforcement sources said it all started when a couple of people walked up to the officers and said there was a group being disorderly, causing issues.

Police went to check it out, and the situation escalated quickly. Video obtained by NBC New York shows the moments before the beatdown, as a police officer and a lieutenant were talking to the group. They put their hands on one person and suddenly, the cops are surrounded. They stumble down 42nd Street, where the officers fall to the ground, before being kicked, stomped and punched in the face and head. 

One lieutenant suffered a cut to his face. The other officer has injuries to the side of his body.

“I’m appalled at this. The city, we have had enough,” said Chell. “The shame of this is they’re trying to keep this city safe, and they get attacked by eight cowards who are kicking them in the face, taking cheap shots.”

Those arrested have been accused of assault or attempted assault on a police officer and gang assault. Several are charged additionally with obstructing governmental administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not commented on whether they will attempt to detain the defendants in this case. Camille Joseph Varlack, the chief of staff for Mayor Adams, said NYC’s sanctuary city status does not prevent police from coordinating with ICE.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Violence at migrant shelters has been a burgeoning problem as of late, prompting demands for fresh quality of life initiatives in certain neighborhoods. The city’s largest shelter is on Randall’s Island, where a deadly fight broke out earlier this month. Three people were arraigned Tuesday in that case.

The trio — 27-year-old Moises Coronado, 33-year-old Ferneys Horta, and 27-year-old Anthony Navas — were each charged in the indictment with first-degree manslaughter and gang assault for the deadly incident on Jan. 6 on Randall’s Island, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday.

One of the men, Coronado, also faces a count of second-degree murder for the death of Dafren Canizalez.

“As alleged, Dafren Canizalez was brutally killed in an attack by a group, who trapped and chased him until he collapsed,” said Bragg. “Everyone who comes into our city deserves to be safe, and we will continue to hold those who commit serious acts of violence accountable.””

The three men and Canizalez were staying at the shelter on Randall’s Island when the violence broke out around 7:30 p.m., according to court documents. Coronado and Canizalez got into an argument in the cafeteria of the facility, documents stated, and Coronado left to get a knife.

“Everyone in the lunchroom was crowded together, standing on tables watching. I seen security trying to cool down this one guest, but the guest he just wasn’t having it,” an employee of the shelter told NBC New York. “He ran to get something, came back and lunged at the guy. Everything happened so quickly.”

He came back with his friends Horta and Navas, each of whom was armed with a knife in their pocket, documents said. When they found Canizalez, they surrounded him, and Coronado punched him in the face. The trio chased him out of the cafeteria and caught up to him when he was blocked in by a locked door.

Coronado allegedly stabbed him multiple times, including in the hand and the deadly wound to his chest. The suspects continued to chase Canizalez around until he collapsed, according to court documents.

Medics took the man to a local hospital where he was ultimately pronounced dead, police said. A knife was also recovered from the scene.

Coronado reportedly tried to run off after the attack but was stopped by security, and was later arrested at the scene. Horta and Navas were arrested two days later, Bragg said.

Shortly after announcing the intention to open some 57 beds to asylum seekers, Saint John’s Episcopal Church on Staten Island said it will stand down.

“At Saint John’s Church, our mission is rooted in compassion. But while we were working to fulfill our duty to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and welcome the stranger, I received disturbing threats from anti-immigrant groups, who were sadly encouraged by several of our officials,” Rev. Hank Tuell said in a statement this week.

“We will continue to embody the principles of love, understanding, and service that define our spiritual journey — including forgiving those who attacked our community for trying to care for our new neighbors.”

The church had said it hoped to use the first floor of a senior residence facility next to the church on Bay Street. Almost immediately, elected officials representing the area of Staten Island pushed back against the proposal, citing zoning concerns and a need “to protect our seniors’ spaces.”

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Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Borough President Vito Fossella, District Attorney Michael McMahon, State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks drafted a letter on Jan. 19 urging Tuell and the church to reverse course.

“The proposed plan to house over 50 migrants between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five is a slap in the face to your senior residents and the community which is entitled to a shared elderly daycare center that is open to all residents,” the letter concludes.

“We will use all legal measures at our disposal to ensure that you uphold the contractual agreement and moral obligation made to these seniors and to our community.”

Attempts to erect migrant shelters on Staten Island have continually faced opposition from neighbors and politicians. Last fall, hundreds of protesters repeatedly rallied outside a former Catholic high school.

Adams delivered his third State of the City address Wednesday, taking a decidedly more upbeat tone as his administration battles fresh budget concerns and the ongoing migrant crisis. Both were among the Democrat’s topics he addressed, as were homelessness, driving down crime and driving out rats.

Perhaps most notably from his address was his emphasis on social media, which he blasted as an “environmental toxin.” The city’s health department declared social media a public health crisis, warning that children under the age of 14 should steer clear. In a subsequent post on social media, Adams said young people in particular were being targeted, adding that he “won’t let Big Tech endanger our kids.”

“We need to protect our children from harm online…Companies like Tik Tok, YouTube, Facebook are fueling a mental health crisis by designing their platform with addictive and dangerous features,” the mayor said. “We cannot stand by and let Big Tech monetize our children’s privacy and jeopardize their mental health.

The mayor announced several new initiatives as well, including a new agency to coordinate and improve protocols for delivery bikes, saying during his speech that the city “cannot have mopeds speeding down our sidewalks and forcing people to jump out of the way.”

He also promised plans for 500,000 housing units by 2033, and nearly a million new jobs.

The annual status update for New York City came as the mayor awaits a showdown with the City Council after back-to-back vetoes on bills that would have respectively increased transparency in NYPD encounters with civilians and banned solitary confinement in city jails. The Council has enough votes to override both vetoes and says it intends to.

There was just one direct reference to the big battle brewing over the bill, as Adams extended an olive branch of sorts to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

“My mommy used to say… ‘I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it,'” the mayor said to Adams, to which she smiled and mouthed in reply, “I love you too.”

While New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams praised the speech as aspirational, he also said the mayor has been spreading falsehoods that the police bill would burden officers with paperwork.

“It’s so fascinatingly false,” said Williams. “All we’re saying is a couple more seconds in what they have to do at the end of their tour. We did say if it’s easier to do after your stops, then just do it then.”

Adams pulled out slogans from his successful run for mayor in 2022, repeating that when crime goes down, jobs and tourism go up. But as for the unpopular migrant crisis, the city’s budget woes or the ongoing federal investigation into his fundraising, Adams made minimal references, only saying that his administration “stayed focused, no distractions, and we grind.”

“We are not out of the woods, but I am very proud we were able to cut the budget…the mayor was very focused on the fiscal management,” said Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services.

Adams did discuss the city’s homeless outreach program, the HOPE (Homeless Outreach Population Estimate) Count, to get a more accurate picture of the crisis and disseminate help. Volunteers fan out across the city trying to identify individuals experiencing homelessness, which will include migrants this year.

This year’s HOPE Count comes as shelters across the city are being inundated with asylum seekers. Last week, four shelters housing migrants imposed a curfew to mitigate instances of asylum seekers allegedly going door-to-door begging for cash and food. 

Regarding the growing crisis, Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, committed $2.4 billion to help the state manage the situation.

Adams has said that budget cuts may be averted by April if the city receives enough funding from the state and federal government to manage the humanitarian crisis.

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Police said 18 people were arrested Thursday after a migrant shelter melee on Randall’s Island sparked chaos among asylum seekers and left at least one person hospitalized following a stabbing.

Multiple people were seen being escorted away in handcuffs following the afternoon brawl. Cell phone video shared with News 4 showed a man struggling on the ground as officers surround him, eventually getting him cuffed along with more than a dozen other migrants.

More video shows a man desperate to get past police as he yells “my brother, my brother.” The man’s 24-yera-old brother had just been stabbed and was being taken away in an ambulance.

According to a witness at the migrant shelter, two men got into an argument Thursday and were asked by a security guard to move outside. That’s when things apparently escalated, and more people got involved.

The witness said he saw the security guard take out a knife and stab a migrant in the neck. Police could not confirm whether a security guard was involved, but did say the victim was stabbed in the neck.

Police sources told News 4 that “multiple” knives were recovered from the area.

The afternoon chaos comes less than two weeks after a 24-year-old was fatally stabbed at the same shelter. A 26-year-old man was arrested.

Following the Jan. 6 stabbing, a City Hall spokesperson said security at the relief center would be “redoubling” efforts to keep everyone safe.

A winter clothing drive took place at Floyd Bennett Field Thursday to help migrants deal with the freezing temperature the tri-state area has been grappling with over the past few days — frigid temperatures that have not stopped asylum seekers from waiting overnight for a New York City ID card.

Video shows dozens of asylum seekers waiting in line for a municipal ID card outside a city office building in Boerum Hill.

“I can’t get a job because I don’t have an ID card,” a 61-year-old migrant woman from Honduras told NBC New York early Thursday morning. She went on to mention that she had been sitting in the cold since 8 p.m. the night before trying to secure an identification card.

However, an aid worker supporting migrants with hot soup, coffee and blankets, who did not want to be identified, said the process is not that simple.

“There’s a misconception that, you get an NYC ID and immediately you have a federal work permit, which is not how it works,” the aid worker said.

Meanwhile, Alejandro, a 23-year-old migrant from Venezuela was pleading with city staff along with friends to set-up an appointment to request the coveted city ID.

“The city is not even trying to tell the migrants, ‘Hey, listen, you might wanna wait until it gets warmer to wait for this ID,'” the aid worker said.

The New York City ID card is free for all New Yorkers regardless of their immigration status. It provides access to a range of services and programs offered by the city.

A similar brutal situation under extremely cold temperatures was also taking place Thursday in Lower Manhattan, with asylum seekers trying to follow-up on their immigration status.

“The federal government can put out some heaters or put out some accommodations or get some more staff in,” Alexander Rapaport, the executive director of the Masbia Relief Team, told NBC New York.

Meanwhile, at Floyd Bennett Field, a winter clothing and toy drive for asylum-seeking families was hosted by city officials and private donors.

Many of the migrants are experiencing their first North American winter.

“We are giving out hats, packets to keep families warm in the winter,” Senior Vice President of NYC Health + Hospitals Ted Long said.

“We’ve been able to come together as New Yorkers and city government to help people who have been through so much,” NYC Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Manuel Castro said.

“We’re here for her future,” Giovanni Méndez, an asylum seeker, told NBC New York.

“I am grateful for the help but I just want to work for her future,” Méndez said with a sense of urgency as he and his wife care for their 2-year-old daughter.

The migrant spending plan came as part of a $233 billion budget proposal from the governor’s office that will kick off months of negotiations with legislative leaders.

How the governor planned to deal with migrants, some 70,000 of whom are in the care of New York City, had been a looming question ahead of the legislative session. She did not tackle the issue in her State of the State address last week and the word “migrant” wasn’t mentioned in her detailed 181-page policy plan book.

On Tuesday, she unveiled a plan to provide shelter services, legal assistance and more for asylum-seekers, and reiterated calls for the federal government to provide more assistance to the state.

“We’re doing this not just because it’s the right thing to do for the migrants and for the city of New York,” Hochul said at the state Capitol. “We also know that companies won’t do business in New York if there are thousands of people sleeping on the streets, or the quality of life is dramatically impacted because the city is forced to cut essential services.”

The issue has the potential to damage Democratic congressional candidates in New York this fall, with key suburban races in the state expected to heavily count toward which party controls the U.S. House. Republicans have been lobbing steady criticism at President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats over federal immigration policy, with the subject already touching races in New York.

“We have a Democratic administration in Washington that hasn’t addressed the border crisis, has not secured the border,” Assembly Republican Minority Leader Will Barclay told reporters. “I’m not thrilled to have to spend any money on the migrant crisis.”

The arrival of migrants in New York is in part a result of operations led by the Republican governor of Texas, where migrants are sent by bus or plane to northern states controlled by Democrats.

Hochul’s plan would earmark $2.4 billion for short-term shelter services, health care and pay for larger-scale emergency housing centers that have been set up to deal with the influx of asylum seekers. It would also be used to pay for legal assistance to help migrants through the asylum and work-permitting process.

The governor told reporters she will head to Washington this week to meet with the Biden administration to discuss the migrant influx — one of many such visits she has had over the last several months.

“Until we see a change in federal policy that slows the flow of new arrivals, we’re going to be swimming against the tide,” Hochul said.

The proposed budget also provided Hochul a chance to elaborate on several policy proposals she announced last week.

She asked for $35.3 billion in education funding, in part to expand universal prekindergarten programs in school districts across the state, and said she wants $40 million for a plan to crack down on retail theft. Separately, she said spending on Medicaid would reach $35.5 billion, which would mark an increase from last year driven by greater enrollment.

The deadline for adopting a state budget is April 1.

___

Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

New York City is considering possible curfews for migrants currently housed in city shelters.

This the latest effort to ease symptoms of the migrant crisis — specifically asylum seekers allegedly going door-to-door begging for cash and food.

This latest development comes on the heels of the controversial tents at Floyd Bennett Field, which many say are unfit for families.

“I feel for them,” Nelson Tung, a Flatlands resident, said. “It’s really, really sad the position that they are in obviously it’s also very difficult in the city right now.”

Residents in the surrounding neighborhoods said they are now seeing migrants knocking on doors, begging for money, clothes, baby strollers, and food. According to Councilwoman Joann Ariola, it’s been happening at night — which is why she has been pushing for an 11 p.m. curfew at all migrants shelters. Ariola said that Mayor Eric Adams’ office might be on board with the plan.

“I mentioned it many times before but this was the first time the response was, ‘We’re looking into that.’ So I was extremely encouraged,” she said.

Currently, migrants are able to come and go as they please, but they are dependent on buses that take them to and from remote shelter locations.

In Flatlands, NBC New York heard from more than a dozen people who say migrant mothers with children have been knocking on their doors quite frequently during the day and they want it to stop. None of them agreed to be interviewed on camera, but all of them questioned how a curfew would help with what they calling a daytime problem. Meanwhile, advocates for a curfew point out that other homeless New Yorkers already have one.

“We’re not asking anything of the migrants that are not being asked of New Yorkers that are homeless,” Ariola said.

While Tung supports the migrants, he is in favor of the curfew if it’s a solution that will help everyone.

“I think in terms of safety for the migrants, especially themselves, I think it’s probably a good idea,” Tung said.

Adams administration spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak would only tell NBC New York that City Hall is considering all options and that no decisions about curfews have been made yet.

Investigators looked into whether Jenkins had tried to conceal violations, first reported by the News 4 I-Team on July 20, 2022, involving migrant families with children left overnight at the City’s homeless intake office instead of being placed in proper shelter. 

But former Commissioner Gary Jenkins declared he had been “cleared of any wrongdoing” and that he “communicated transparently to City Hall.”

DOI’s Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber disputed this in an interview Wednesday with the the News 4 I-Team.

“The facts that we found were that he was not fully transparent. So to the extent that his statement suggested that we found him to be fully transparent? That’s not accurate,” Strauber said.

Family after family told the I-Team they had been left to sleep for days on benches and floors of the Bronx building known as PATH, without enough food, after completing traumatic and arduous journeys through the jungle. Some described 60-80 families at a time living on the waiting room floor “like dogs.”

City officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, have insisted the violations impacted only four or five families and that no families ever spent multiple days there. 

According to the DOI report released Tuesday, Commissioner Jenkins “appeared to minimize, if not misrepresent the circumstances” at the intake office, leaving senior officials at City Hall without an understanding of the violations and their implications until they were reported publicly by the I-Team.  

The DOI opened its investigation in August 2022, after the I-Team reported Jenkins fired his chief spokeswoman Julia Savel. Savel had informed City Hall about the violations and claimed Jenkins was trying to cover them up. 

Text messages obtained by the I-Team showed Savel telling one of Mayor Adams’ press aides, “Gary was trying to not tell City Hall we broke the law. I got yelled at for telling you.” The City Hall aide wrote back “Oy.”

Jenkins has insisted that Savel’s complaints about him were not why he fired her, though he declined to elaborate.

After her termination, Savel told the I-Team that before the migrant influx had become public, she had urged Jenkins and other officials to come clean about the violations due to an overwhelmed system, but was met with what she described as “an intentional cover up.” Savel said that in response to our questions, she was ordered to draft an untrue statement saying the city was “meeting its legal mandate.”

In retrospect, City insiders agree with the sudden surge of 2,700 migrants into the shelter system in the summer of 2022, some New Yorkers might have been willing to forgive violations of this sort. But homeless advocates and past city officials agree leaving children and families overnight at this intake office has long been considered a no-no. 

In decades past, after notorious pile-ups of families here, the court has held city officials in contempt.

Families who arrive at PATH by 10 p.m. are supposed to be placed in shelter by 4 a.m., under Section 21-313 of the City’s administrative code, a longstanding policy known as the 10-4 rule designed to protect children in shelter. 

DOI concluded that City officials underreported the number of 10-4 violations and that the full scope cannot be known, because of the poor quality of available evidence. In its report, the DOI says it was able to verify at least 11 violations.

The report recommends changes to the city’s recordkeeping at PATH, citing software systems taken out of service, false data reports and even surveillance tape that was inexplicably missing for key dates and times.

“That kind of insufficient recordkeeping raises a significant risk that the information that’s made public and that’s disclosed will be inaccurate,” Strauber said. “There was a period of time when there was inaccurate information in the public about how many people had spent the night at PATH.”

DOI investigators say they requested security video from the PATH intake center, which would have helped assess the conditions, the number of families, and the times when families arrived and departed.

According to the report, DOI was told that a failed backup server had resulted in missing video. The report says both City shelter officials and vendors were unable to provide any proof that their server failed, adding that “the vendors told DOI they could not definitively rule out tampering.”

In 2022, when the arrival of migrants started impacting operations at the shelter system entrypoint, no violation of this rule had been alleged for at least a decade prior, and the practice of leaving families in this office had previously been the subject of contentious, protracted litigation brought by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of the homeless.

According to the report, “Jenkins decided to delay notifying the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless, the court-appointed monitor for the City’s shelter system,” a decision DOI describes as “a departure from longstanding practice.” The report says that while the delay was brief, roughly 24 hours, “Jenkins could not provide DOI with a sufficient explanation for it.”

On July 21, 2022, one day after the I-Team’s first report, Mayor Adams announced the City had violated the 10-4 policy just four times (he later amended the number to five.) Adams said he had just learned of the violations, and defended Commissioner Jenkins, who claimed he was unaware the City’s actions had violated the law.

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According to the DOI report, Jenkins had been informed about the violations three days earlier, on July 18. That morning, he sent a text message to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom in City Hall, saying “It’s getting rough. I just learned we had some families past the 4am assignment at Path this morning.”

DOI concludes that Jenkins’ text message did not convey the full factual or legal context and left the deputy mayor with the sense that this was “a small operational issue.”

“Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom informed DOI that in retrospect she was frustrated that Jenkins did not provide additional context before July 20, when the City found itself ill-prepared to respond to public allegations concerning families’ experiences at PATH,” according to DOI.

As for Jenkins’ termination of Savel, DOI says it conducted only a limited inquiry into the reasons for Savel’s firing and was unable to reach a conclusion on this issue. 

According to the report, investigators “found some evidence supporting Julia Savel’s claim that her termination resulted principally from her conversations with City Hall.”

But the report says investigators also saw evidence suggesting Jenkins’ claim that Savel’s termination was due to “documented instances where she was reportedly unprofessional.” In its report, however, DOI does not list any examples of the behavior Jenkins allegedly found unprofessional.

In 2022, Savel told the I-Team, “My performance was never in question.”

In a statement Tuesday, Jenkins said, “I’m pleased to be cleared of any wrongdoing. I communicated transparently to City Hall and proudly stand by my tenure, especially given the unprecedented, unpredictable nature of the migrant crisis.”

Jenkins stepped down as commissioner of the NYC Department of Social Services in February 2023, after just one year in the job. He has since joined Oaktree Solutions, a firm founded by Mayor Adams’ chief campaign fundraiser and former Chief of Staff Frank Carone.

Savel, meanwhile, is ineligible for whistleblower protection, according to the report, because she took her complaints about Jenkins’ alleged cover up to City Hall instead of to DOI. 

“Obviously her claims did bring certain issues to light that we followed up on,” Commissioner Strauber said.

The DOI is an independent investigative agency whose commissioner is appointed by the mayor and must be confirmed by the City Council.

Strauber says City Hall did not interfere in this investigation and that she does not know why Jenkins left his position.

According to the NYPD, a 24-year-old man was stabbed at a shelter on Randall’s Island around 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The man was stabbed in the chest.

Medics responded to took the man to a local hospital where he was ultimately pronounced dead, police said.

An employee of the shelter told News 4 the incident started with some kind of altercation in the facility’s dining room.

“Everyone in the lunchroom was crowded together, standing on tables watching. I seen security trying to cool down this one guest, but the guest he just wasn’t having it,” a witness said. “He ran to get something, came back and lunged at the guy. Everything happened so quickly.”

The suspect reportedly tried to run off after the attack but was stopped by security. Police confirmed they had a 26-year-old man in custody.

A knife was also recovered from the scene.

A spokesperson for City Hall said security at the relief center would be “redoubling” efforts to keep everyone safe.

“The overwhelming majority of migrants in our care came to our city in search of a better life and the American Dream. The small number of those disrupting that journey for the rest of the migrants in our care by acting violently will face enforcement to the fullest extent of the law,” the spokesperson said.

The lawsuit is intended to cover past shelter, food, and health care costs for migrants transported from Texas, as well as future costs of migrants already here and migrants who may be transported in the future, according to the mayor’s office. The city said more than 33,600 migrants have already been transported to NYC from Texas.

The Adams administration has been trying to navigate ways to stem the tide of buses bringing migrants to the city and the mayor said he hopes the lawsuit serves as a warning for future transports.

“New York City has and will always do our part to manage this humanitarian crisis, but we cannot bear the costs of reckless political ploys from the state of Texas alone,” Adams said in a statement. “Today, we are taking legal action against 17 companies that have taken part in Texas Governor Abbott’s scheme to transport tens of thousands of migrants to New York City in an attempt to overwhelm our social services system.”

Gov. Abbott said Adams is “interfering” with the migrants’ “constitutional authority” to travel.

“This lawsuit is baseless and deserves to be sanctioned. It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States,” Abbott said in a statement.

In December, Adams announced an executive order requiring charter buses to only drop off migrants between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and noon on weekdays, and only at a specific location — West 41st Street by the Port Authority Bus Terminal — or face fines. The order also required a notice period of 32 hours before arriving in the city.

In order to “thwart” the order and take advantage of a “loophole,” charter buses were dropping off migrants in New Jersey cities before they boarded a train to New York, according to the mayor of Secaucus.

A spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the administration is working with federal and local partners, including New York City.

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“Our Administration has tracked the recent arrival of a handful buses of migrant families at various NJ TRANSIT train stations,” said Tyler Jones, deputy press secretary for Murphy, in a statement. “New Jersey is primarily being used as a transit point for these families — all or nearly all of them continued with their travels en route to their final destination of New York City.”

In the lawsuit, the city accuses the bus companies of acting in “bad faith” by profiting off bringing migrants to the city. The city said many of the companies being targeted in the lawsuit “are the same companies that are now evading compliance with the executive order by busing migrants to New Jersey train stations.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she supports NYC’s lawsuit.

NBC New York has reached out to the bus companies named in the lawsuit for any comment.

Just last week, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced an executive order requiring buses arrive into NYC only between 8:30 a.m. and noon on weekdays at a single drop-off site, or face fines, lawsuits or buses being impounded.

According to Adams’ office, buses must drop off passengers at the loading zone on West 41st Street between 8th and 9th avenues in Manhattan. Chartered buses must also provide 32 hours notice before arriving in the city.

In New York, more than 161,000 migrants have arrived and sought city aid since spring 2022.

Gonnelli said in a statement that the bus operators “have figured out a loophole in the system” to get the migrants to New York City.

“It seems quite clear the bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the Executive Order by dropping migrants at the train station in Secaucus and having them continue to their final destination,” Mayor Gonnelli said.

Gonnelli said it’s possible “the requirements Mayor Adams put in place are too stringent and are resulting in unexpected consequences.”

On Monday, Adams’ chief of staff respond to Gonnelli’s comments saying “they should aim their criticism at Governor Abbott [of Texas].”

“Anyone coming here and accepting the buses that Abbott is arranging for them needs to understand it’s going to take even longer than they realized,” said Camille Joseph Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff.

According to Gonnelli, the New Jersey State Police said a similar situation is occurring at other train stations in the state.

A message posted on a social media account for Jersey City said the city’s emergency management agency reports that “approximately 10 buses from various locations in Texas and one from Louisiana have arrived at various transit stations throughout the state, including Secaucus, Fanwood, Edison, Trenton.” About 397 migrants had arrived at those locations since Saturday, the post Sunday said.

“This is clearly going to be a statewide conversation so it is important that we wait for some guidance from the governor here on next steps” as buses continue, the post said.

“I have been advised the State of New Jersey has a plan in place and we will be working closely with the Governor’s office, all law enforcement agencies, and the County to monitor this situation,” Gonnelli said.

A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy said the administration is working with federal and local partners, including New York City.

“Our Administration has tracked the recent arrival of a handful buses of migrant families at various NJ TRANSIT train stations,” said Tyler Jones, deputy press secretary for Murphy, in a statement. “New Jersey is primarily being used as a transit point for these families — all or nearly all of them continued with their travels en route to their final destination of New York City.”

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander said Chicago’s similar executive order has not had much of an effect in the number of migrants coming to the Windy City.

“I think what will solve the problem is getting these folks work authorization so they can get jobs — get out of shelters  and get on their feet,” Lander said.

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The mayors’ requests come as U.S. cities have struggled to manage the increasing number of migrants sent from Texas and other states. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing operation has transported more than 80,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities since last year. His administration recently stepped up the practice with chartered planes.

The mayors sharply criticized Abbott and the effort, saying buses arrive at all hours and outside designated drop-off zones with no details on who is aboard.

“We cannot allow buses with people needing our help to arrive without warning at any hour of day and night,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a virtual news conference with the other mayors. “This not only prevents us from providing assistance in an orderly way, it puts those who have already suffered in so much in danger.”

Chicago has cracked down on so-called “rogue” buses, with lawsuits, fines and tickets. In recent weeks, buses have tried to avoid penalties by making unscheduled drop-offs in the suburbs, forcing local officials and authorities to step in. Recently, one bus unloaded migrants overnight at a gas station in Kankakee, roughly 70 miles from Chicago.

“The lack of care that has been on display for the last year and a half has created an incredible amount of chaos,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. More than 26,000 migrants have arrived in the city since last year.

Adams said New York City would put similar rules in place as Chicago and announced an executive order Wednesday requesting buses arrive only between 8:30 a.m. and noon on weekdays at a single drop-off site, or face fines, lawsuits or buses being impounded. Denver has similar rules on weekday drop-offs during specified hours.

According to Adams’ office, buses must drop off passengers at the loading zone on West 41st Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan. Charted buses must also provide 32 hours notice before arriving in the city.

In New York, more than 161,000 migrants have arrived and sought city aid since spring 2022, including 4,000 just last week, Adams and other officials said earlier in the week.

The Democratic mayors met last month with President Joe Biden, which followed a letter requesting more help. They want more federal funds, efforts to expand work authorization, and a schedule for when buses arrive.

Cities have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to house, transport and provide medical care for migrants.

“It will crush city budgets around the country,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. The city has received more than 35,000 migrants over the last year.

New York City has offered migrants one-way tickets out of town and traveled to Latin America to discourage people from coming to the city. Members of Johnson’s administration also went to border cities earlier this year in an attempt to open lines of communication.

Abbott’s office didn’t immediately return an email message left Wednesday. A spokesman has previously said Abbott’s administration will continue “taking historic action” until Biden’s administration secures the border.

Homeless migrants and their children were limited to 60 days in city housing under an order issued in October by Mayor Eric Adams, a move the Democrat says is necessary to relieve a shelter system overwhelmed by asylum-seekers crossing the southern U.S. border.

That clock is now ticking down for people like Karina Obando, a 38-year-old mother from Ecuador who has been given until Jan. 5 to get out of the former hotel where she has been staying with her two young children.

Where she will end up next is unclear. After that date, she can reapply for admission to the shelter system. A placement might not happen right away. Her family could wind up getting sent to one of the city’s huge tent shelters far from where her 11-year-old son goes to school.

“I told my son, ‘Take advantage. Enjoy the hotel because we have a roof right now,’” Obando said in Spanish outside Row NYC, a towering, 1,300-room hotel the city converted into a shelter for migrants in the heart of the theater district. “Because they’re going to send us away and we’re going to be sleeping on the train, or on the street.”

A handful of cities across the U.S. dealing with an influx of homeless migrants have imposed their own limits on shelter stays, citing a variety of reasons, including spiraling costs, a lack of space and a desire to put pressure on people to either find housing on their own, or leave town entirely.

Chicago imposed a 60-day shelter limit last month and is poised to start evicting people in early January. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, has capped the number of migrant families in emergency shelters at 7,500.

Denver had limited migrant families to 37 days but paused the policy this month in recognition of winter’s onset. Single adults are limited to 14 days.

In New York, the first families were expected to reach their 60-day limits just days after Christmas, but the mayor’s office said those migrants will receive extensions through early January. Roughly 3,500 families have been issued notices so far.

Unlike most other big cities, New York has a decades-old “ right to shelter ″ obligating the city to provide emergency housing to anyone who asks.

But officials have warned migrants there is no guarantee they will get to stay in the same hotel, or the same city borough, for that matter.

Adult migrants without children are already subject to a shorter limit on shelter stays: 30 days.

Those who get kicked out and still want help are told to head for the city’s so-called “ reticketing center ” that opened in late October in a former Catholic school in Manhattan’s East Village.

Dozens of men and women, many with their luggage and other belongings in tow, line up every morning in freezing weather where they must petition for a renewed stay.

They are offered a free, one-way ticket to anywhere in the world. Most people decline.

Some are able to secure another shelter for 30 days, but many others say they leave empty-handed and must line up again the next day to try their luck.

“I’m scared of dying, sleeping on the street,” Barbara Coromoto Monzon Peña, a 22-year-old from Venezuela, said as she spent a second day waiting in line on a recent weekday.

Obando said her eldest son, who is 19, hasn’t been able to find a place to rent since he and his wife exhausted their 30 allowed days at the Row NYC hotel.

“As a mother, it hurts,” she said, breaking down in tears. “He’s sleeping on the train, on the street, in the cold. He’s in a lot of pain, and now it’s our turn. They told me that this country was different, but for me it’s been hell.”

Adams has insisted the city is doing a lot more for migrant families than almost anywhere else. New York is on track to spend billions of dollars opening shelters, paying for hotel rooms, buying meals and offering assistance overcoming bureaucratic hurdles for asylum-seekers.

The mayor also has warned repeatedly that the city’s resources are stretched thin, with more than 67,200 migrants still in its care and many more arriving every week.

“We’re doing everything in our power to treat families as humanely as possible,” said Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams. “We have used every possible corner of New York City and are quite simply out of good options.”

She stressed that the administration intends to avoid having families sleeping on the streets and said there will be an orderly process for them to request another 60-day stay.

Advocates for immigrants say the end result will still uproot vulnerable families during the coldest months of the year and disrupt schooling for new students just settling into classes.

“It’s maybe the most Grinch move, ever,” said Liza Schwartzwald, a director at the New York Immigrant Coalition. “Sending families with children out like in the middle of winter right after the holiday season is just cruel.”

Adams has stressed that migrant children would not be required to change schools when they move. But some kids could potentially face epic commutes if they are placed in new shelters far from their current schools.

Migrant parents say two months simply isn’t enough time to find a job, get kids settled into childcare or school and save up enough for rent.

Obando, who arrived in the U.S. three months ago, said that outside of the odd cleaning job, she has struggled to find consistent work because there is no one to care for her 3-year-old daughter with her husband still detained at the border in Arizona.

“It’s not that we Ecuadorians come to take their jobs or that we’re lazy,” she said. “We’re good workers. More time, that’s all we ask.”

For Ana Vasquez, a 22-year-old from Venezuela who is eight months pregnant, the situation is more urgent.

Her baby is due in late December, but she has until Jan. 8 to leave the Row NYC, where she has been staying with her sister and two young nieces for the past four months.

“They are going to leave me out in the cold,” Vasquez lamented in Spanish one chilly morning this month outside the hotel. “We don’t have an escape plan. The situation is difficult, even more so with the baby.”

___

Associated Press writer Liset Cruz contributed to this report.

___

Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is leading a group of mayors from the largest U.S. cities to Washington, D.C., to speak with the White House and others regarding the ongoing migrant crisis.

In an exclusive interview with NBC New York, Adams said he and the mayors of the other cities — Chicago, Denver Houston and Los Angeles — will meet with federal lawmakers to help them develop a plan to manage the surge of migrants they say are arriving with little to now coordination, support or resources from President Joe Biden’s administration.

“This is an unsustainable crisis that is man-made, and we need to come up with real solutions,” Adams told News 4. “This is not sustainable…we need to all have the same voice that this should not be happening to the city of New York.”

The Democratic leaders said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday that while they appreciate Biden’s efforts so far, much more needs to be done to ease the burden on their cities.

“We must secure our borders and ensure whoever is coming across, they go through the proper vetting and ensure we do a decompression strategy to go to the over 108,000 cities, villages and towns in our country so that it does not focus on just a few cities in this country,” Adams said. “Mayors across the country, they’re joining me with this. This is the type of bipartisanship we need to address these issues.”

Migrants are sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago. In New York, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter. In Denver, the number of migrants arriving has increased tenfold and available space to shelter them has withered. With fewer available work authorizations, these migrants cannot find work that would allow them to get into proper housing.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who is helping lead the coalition, said nearly every conversation he has had with arriving migrants is the same: Can he help them find a job, they ask.

“The crisis is we have folks here who desperately want to work. And we have employers here who desperately want to hire them. And we have a federal government that’s standing in the way of employers who want to hire employees who want to work,” Johnston said.

migrant crisis Oct 24, 2023

Mayor Adams: Migrants Will Be Sleeping on the Street

migrant crisis Oct 23, 2023

Over 3,000 migrants have hit NYC shelter time limit, but about half have asked to stay

migrant crisis Oct 20, 2023

Rockland County says landlords are packing migrant families into homes for profits

Also signing on were the mayors of the country’s four largest cities: Adams, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Sylvester Turner of Houston.

The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has vexed the Democratic president, who is seeking reelection in 2024. He is increasingly under fire from members of his own party who are managing the growing number of migrants in their cities. Republicans claim Biden is soft on border security and is allowing too many people to enter the United States.

He has responded by toughening rules at the border meant to curb illegal crossings and by offering work authorizations and other incentives to those who come to the U.S. legally — applying ahead of time and arriving by plane.

“We’re committed to supporting local jurisdictions that are hosting migrants that have recently arrived into the country. We’re going to continue to deliver support every way that we can,” said Emilie Simons, deputy White House press secretary.

Simons said the administration is already working to reduce to 30 days the time it takes to get arriving migrants through the system.

The White House said it has entered into a partnership with New York City on a work authorization clinic where up to 300 migrants per day can come in to submit work permit applications.

The reason for the ballooning number of migrants in these cities is complicated, but economic and climate-related hardships in their home countries are key drivers. There are increasing numbers of families arriving and asking for asylum.

Some conservative-leaning states have sent migrants to so-called sanctuary cities such as New York or Chicago, where laws are more favorable to noncitizens. But that alone does not explain why the cities are facing such increases.

In years past, when migrants arrived, they would be released and picked up by nonprofit groups before usually going to stay with a relative already in the U.S. But the nationalities of the people arriving have changed, and many no longer have any place to go.

Winning asylum is a long and difficult process through a badly clogged immigration court system. In some cases, migrants may wait up to a decade for a court date. They are released into the U.S. to wait. Some are eligible to work, but such authorizations are badly delayed. There are concerns, too, that allowing too much work authorization will encourage more people to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. on foot. So thousands are in limbo, unable to work, sleeping in shelters or government facilities.

Biden has requested $1.4 billion from Congress to help state and local governments provide shelter and services for migrants, after earlier pleas from Democratic mayors and governors.

Johnston and the other mayors say in their letter that more is needed, and they are asking for $5 billion.

“While we are greatly appreciative of the additional federal funding proposed, our city budgets and local taxpayers continue to bear the brunt of this ongoing federal crisis,” the letter says. “Cities have historically absorbed and integrated new migrants with success.”

Denver is spending $2 million a week on sheltering migrants. New York has surpassed a total of $1.7 billion and Chicago has spent $320 million, according to the letter.

“Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the amount proposed in order to properly care for the asylum seekers entering our communities,” the mayors’ letter says. “Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential city services.”

The mayors also want an accelerated work authorization approval process so migrants can find work.

“We are extremely appreciative of the work the Biden-Harris administration has done in expanding work authorization and providing funding for this mission, but we need to go one step further to ensure we continue to meet the moment and provide care for new arrivals,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.

The cities are full of people who have applied, but there are delays of six months or more. The mayors also are pushing to expand authorizations so anyone released into the U.S. would become eligible to find work while they wait for their immigration cases to play out.

Lastly, they are asking for the administration to create a regional migrate coordinator who would work with the federal government, nonprofits and state and local officials. The aim is to better coordinate and place migrants in areas where there is capacity for them.

It’s unclear whether Congress, including the Republican-controlled House, will pass any of the funding Biden has requested, let alone a increase for local support.

“We think there is a real commonsense path here that and that’s why we thought it was important,” Johnston said.

The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York are pressing to meet with President Joe Biden about getting federal help in managing the surge of migrants they say are arriving in their cities with little to no coordination, support or resources from his administration.

The Democratic leaders say in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday that while they appreciate Biden’s efforts so far, much more needs to be done to ease the burden on their cities.

Migrants are sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago. In New York, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter. In Denver, the number of migrants arriving has increased tenfold and available space to shelter them has withered. With fewer available work authorizations, these migrants cannot find work that would allow them to get into proper housing.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who is leading the coalition, said nearly every conversation he has had with arriving migrants is the same: Can he help them find a job, they ask.

“The crisis is we have folks here who desperately want to work. And we have employers here who desperately want to hire them. And we have a federal government that’s standing in the way of employers who want to hire employees who want to work,” Johnston said.

migrant crisis Oct 24, 2023

Mayor Adams: Migrants Will Be Sleeping on the Street

migrant crisis Oct 23, 2023

Over 3,000 migrants have hit NYC shelter time limit, but about half have asked to stay

migrant crisis Oct 20, 2023

Rockland County says landlords are packing migrant families into homes for profits

Also signing on were the mayors of the country’s four largest cities: Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Sylvester Turner of Houston.

The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has vexed the Democratic president, who is seeking reelection in 2024. He is increasingly under fire from members of his own party who are managing the growing number of migrants in their cities. Republicans claim Biden is soft on border security and is allowing too many people to enter the United States.

He has responded by toughening rules at the border meant to curb illegal crossings and by offering work authorizations and other incentives to those who come to the U.S. legally — applying ahead of time and arriving by plane.

“We’re committed to supporting local jurisdictions that are hosting migrants that have recently arrived into the country. We’re going to continue to deliver support every way that we can,” said Emilie Simons, deputy White House press secretary.

Simons said the administration is already working to reduce to 30 days the time it takes to get arriving migrants through the system.

The White House said it has entered into a partnership with New York City on a work authorization clinic where up to 300 migrants per day can come in to submit work permit applications.

The reason for the ballooning number of migrants in these cities is complicated, but economic and climate-related hardships in their home countries are key drivers. There are increasing numbers of families arriving and asking for asylum.

Some conservative-leaning states have sent migrants to so-called sanctuary cities such as New York or Chicago, where laws are more favorable to noncitizens. But that alone does not explain why the cities are facing such increases.

In years past, when migrants arrived, they would be released and picked up by nonprofit groups before usually going to stay with a relative already in the U.S. But the nationalities of the people arriving have changed, and many no longer have any place to go.

Winning asylum is a long and difficult process through a badly clogged immigration court system. In some cases, migrants may wait up to a decade for a court date. They are released into the U.S. to wait. Some are eligible to work, but such authorizations are badly delayed. There are concerns, too, that allowing too much work authorization will encourage more people to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. on foot. So thousands are in limbo, unable to work, sleeping in shelters or government facilities.

Biden has requested $1.4 billion from Congress to help state and local governments provide shelter and services for migrants, after earlier pleas from Democratic mayors and governors.

Johnston and the other mayors say in their letter that more is needed, and they are asking for $5 billion.

“While we are greatly appreciative of the additional federal funding proposed, our city budgets and local taxpayers continue to bear the brunt of this ongoing federal crisis,” the letter says. “Cities have historically absorbed and integrated new migrants with success.”

Denver is spending $2 million a week on sheltering migrants. New York has surpassed a total of $1.7 billion and Chicago has spent $320 million, according to the letter.

“Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the amount proposed in order to properly care for the asylum seekers entering our communities,” the mayors’ letter says. “Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential city services.”

The mayors also want an accelerated work authorization approval process so migrants can find work.

“We are extremely appreciative of the work the Biden-Harris administration has done in expanding work authorization and providing funding for this mission, but we need to go one step further to ensure we continue to meet the moment and provide care for new arrivals,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.

The cities are full of people who have applied, but there are delays of six months or more. The mayors also are pushing to expand authorizations so anyone released into the U.S. would become eligible to find work while they wait for their immigration cases to play out.

Lastly, they are asking for the administration to create a regional migrate coordinator who would work with the federal government, nonprofits and state and local officials. The aim is to better coordinate and place migrants in areas where there is capacity for them.

It’s unclear whether Congress, including the Republican-controlled House, will pass any of the funding Biden has requested, let alone a increase for local support.

“We think there is a real commonsense path here that and that’s why we thought it was important,” Johnston said.

New York City is intensifying efforts to transport migrants out of the city as its shelter system reaches capacity, setting up a dedicated office to provide asylum-seekers with free, one-way tickets to anywhere in the world.

City Hall confirmed the establishment of a new “reticketing center” in Manhattan as its latest bid to ease pressure on its shelters and finances following the arrival of more than 130,000 asylum-seekers since last year.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has described the situation as a crisis and has begun to warn that shelters are so full that migrants will soon be forced onto the street as winter approaches.

“I cannot say this enough. You know, we are out of the room,” he told reporters this week. “And it’s not ‘if’ people will be sleeping on the streets, it’s when. We are at full capacity.”

The city’s plan to offer migrants transportation builds upon previous efforts to send the asylum-seekers elsewhere, though the establishment of the dedicated reticketing center marks a renewed emphasis on the strategy.

The city has stressed that the offer for travel is voluntary.

The mayor’s office has recently limited adult migrants to 30 days in city shelters and 60 days for migrant families with children. Migrants, most of whom arrive without the legal ability to work, can reapply for housing if they are unable to find a new place to live.

A spokeswoman for Adams said about 20,000 people have received either 30- or 60-day notices. Less than 20% of people who have exceeded the limits are still in city shelters, she said. City Hall officials have said such statistics are proof that their policies are promoting migrants to find alternate housing.

Adams is also seeking to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. No other major U.S. city has such a requirement, and the mayor’s office has argued in court that the mandate was never meant to apply to an influx of migrants. A judge this month directed the city to enter mediation discussions with homeless advocacy groups to find a solution.

The mayor’s office said it has rushed to set up more than 200 emergency shelters to house migrants, including renting space in hotels and erecting large-scale facilities. More than 65,000 migrants are in city shelters.

Adams said he expects the influx to cost about $12 billion over the next three years.

About 3,000 asylum-seekers have been told their time was up in New York City shelters, but about half have reapplied to stay, according to a newspaper report.

The United States’ most populous city has struggled to contend with the arrival of over 120,000 asylum-seekers in the past year. About 60,000 are currently in shelters run by the city, which is legally required to provide emergency housing to homeless people. The obligation is unmatched in any other major U.S. city.

Mayor Eric Adams announced in July that New York would start giving adult migrants 60 days’ notice to move out of city shelters. The policy has since been extended to families with children, and tightened to 30 days for adults not accompanied by youngsters.

Migrants, many of whom don’t have legal authorization to work, can reapply for shelter if they can’t find find anywhere else to live.

Some 3,025 notices have come due since the initial 60-day policy took effect, the Daily News reported Friday. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said Tuesday that roughly “less than 50%” of people applied to remain; the newspaper calculated that out to about 1,500 people.

Williams-Isom cast the statistic as a signal that the policy was prompting people to find their own housing.

A lawyer for the Legal Aid Society didn’t see it that way.

“It would make more sense to step up real case management and help people move out on whatever timeline is appropriate for them, rather than arbitrarily telling people they need to come back” and reapply on a specific day, attorney Josh Goldfein told the Daily News.

So far, the city has handed out at least 13,500 of the 60-day notices, many of which are yet to come due, according to the newspaper.

The town of Clarkstown is going after those who are illegally renting out houses, often to multiple families.

Officials in the town say profiteers are increasingly illegally converting single-family homes in neighborhoods and packing in renters. The conditions in some after often dangerous for the families, as well as first responders.

One tenant said there are five families living in a single-family home in New City, a home recently raided by Clarkstown inspectors. Pictures show beds in the attic, accessible only through a crawl space.

“Had there been a fire here, people would have died. There’s only way in and out of that attic, it’s up a flight of steps and then through an opening that you have to crawl through,” Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann said.

The I-Team made several efforts to contact First Choice, the property management company now being taken to court by Clarkstown for allegedly violating local laws. No one from the firm responded.

Clarkstown’s supervisor said a number of absentee owners in the town are utilizing one property management company: First Choice. Hoehmann said the firm operates 37 properties in Clarkstown and 302 more throughout the rest of the county. At the moment, 17 of the properties are a concern.

“They’ve denied access at multiple locations, were non-responsive when violations have been issued. These are houses that were allegedly altered, systematically altered, in violation of our building codes,” the supervisor said Thursday.

The town began investigating in September after inspectors found 34 migrants living in an illegally converted house in New City run by First Choice. A judge ordered the home vacated and restored to a single-family dwelling.

Clarkstown is now going to court to try and get access to the 17 homes First Choice oversees and make sure they are up to code. Officials and first responders are calling for more oversight of the property management companies and resources from the state to battle the illegal housing issue.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that he is limiting shelter stays for migrant families with children to 60 days, bidding to ease pressure on a city housing system overwhelmed by a large influx of asylum seekers over the past year.

The Democrat’s office said it will begin sending 60-day notices to migrant families who live in shelters, though they could reapply for housing if they are unable to find a new place to live. The city also will provide “intensified casework services” to help families secure housing, according to a news release.

It’s the mayor’s latest attempt to provide relief to the city’s shelter system and finances as it grapples with more than 120,000 international migrants who have come to New York, many without housing or the legal ability to work. More than 60,000 migrants currently live in city shelters, according to his office.

Adams has estimated the city will spend $12 billion over the next three years to handle the influx, setting up large-scale emergency shelters, renting out hotels and providing various government services for migrants.

migrant crisis Oct 13, 2023

Gov. Hochul backs suspension of ‘right to shelter' as migrant influx strains NYC

New York City Oct 7, 2023

New York City mayor wraps up Latin America trip by calling for ‘right to work' for migrants in US

The mayor last month limited adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding. Adams is also seeking to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. No other major U.S. city has such a requirement.

“With over 64,100 asylum seekers still in the city’s care, and thousands more migrants arriving every week, expanding this policy to all asylum seekers in our care is the only way to help migrants take the next steps on their journeys,” Adams said in a statement.

Recently Adams took a four-day trip through Latin America, starting in Mexico, where he sought to discourage people from coming to New York by telling them the city’s shelter system is at capacity and that its resources are overwhelmed.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting the city’s effort to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to homeless people, as a large influx of migrants overwhelms the city’s shelter system.

Hochul endorsed the New York City’s challenge to the requirement in a court filing this week, telling reporters Thursday that the mandate was never meant to apply to an international humanitarian crisis.

The city has for months sought to roll back the so-called right to shelter rule following the arrival of more than 120,000 migrants since last year. Many of the migrants have arrived without housing or jobs, forcing the city to erect emergency shelters and provide various government services, with an estimated cost of $12 billion over the next few years.

The shelter requirement has been in place for more than four decades in New York City, following a legal agreement that required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person. No other big city in America has such a requirement.

“I don’t know how the right to shelter — dedicated to help those people, which I believe in, help families — can or should be interpreted to be an open invitation to 8 billion people who live on this planet, that if you show up in the streets of New York, that the city of New York has an obligation to provide you with a hotel room or shelter,” said Hochul, a Democrat.

Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a court to allow it to suspend the mandate when there is a state of emergency where the shelter population of single adults increases at a rapid rate. New York state on Wednesday filed a court document in support of the city’s request, calling it reasonable.

New York City has also tightened shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding.

Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said the city’s request to suspend the mandate would have broad impact and could lead to large homeless encampments in New York.

“Make no mistake: if the mayor and governor get their way, they will be closing the door of the shelter system to thousands of people without homes, leaving them nowhere to sleep but the streets,” he said.

He spoke during a visit to Necocli, the northern Colombia town where thousands of migrants start the perilous trek across the roadless Darien jungle into Panama, as they head for the U.S.

Speaking from a dock where migrants take boats toward the jungle, Adams said countries in the region need to “come together” to find solutions to the immigration crisis being felt across the Americas as well as in cities in the United States, including New York.

He called on the U.S goverment to find pathways for migrants and asylum seekers to work legally in the United States.

“When you look at Colombia they have really shown how to absorb individuals into their societies, and one of the most important ways to do it is to allow people to work,” Adams told reporters in Necocli. “Nothing is more humane and, nothing is more American than your right to work, and we believe that is a right we should extend.”

New York City has struggled to provide emergency accommodation to tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city this year, with Adams and other city leaders calling on the federal government to speed up work authorizations for those who are already in the city.

A unique rule dating from the 1980s requires New York to provide shelter to anyone in need. Adams has said the cost of supporting migrants could climb to $12 billion in the following three years, and this week challenged the statute that obliges the city to provide migrants with shelter.

The mayor also went to Ecuador and Mexico during his whistlestop tour, where he visited shelters for migrants and spoke to local legislators.

After stopping in Mexico’s Puebla state, Adams said his city is “at capacity.”

“Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not,” Adams told reporters. “We don’t want to put people in congregate shelters. We don’t want people to think they will be employed.”

In Colombia, Adams said his goal is not to tell migrants what they should do, but to learn about their motives and find solutions to the immigration crisis.

The South American country has received 2.8 million migrants from Venezuela over the past seven years, and enabled them to apply for 10-year work permits that also give them access health and education services.

But despite the effort to regularize Venezuelan migrants, many are heading to the United States after struggling to rebuild their lives in Colombia and other South American countries, where economies are still recovering from the pandemic.

According to Panama’s National Immigration Service, more than 200,000 Venezuelans crossed the Darien Gap this year on their way to the United States. Many are moving for the second or third time, after living in South American countries like Colombia, Chile and Peru.

This week the Biden administration struck a deal with Venezuela’s socialist government to resume direct deportations flights to Venezuela and said that Venezuelans who do not qualify for ayslum will be returned to their homeland.

In Necocli, some Venezuelan migrants headed north said they would persist in their trek to reach the U.S. border despite the new policy.

“Getting in (the U.S.) is also a matter of luck,” said Miguel Ruben Camacaro, a Venezuelan migrant travelling with his two children and slept on a tent at Necocli’s beach. “We will chase the dream, until there are no other options.”

New York City is challenging a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to anyone who asks for it, as the city’s shelter system strains under a large influx of international migrants who have arrived since last year.

The city filed a request late Tuesday asking a court to allow it to suspend the requirement when there is a state of emergency where the shelter population of single adults increases at a rapid rate.

The filing came as Mayor Eric Adams embarks on a four-day trip through Latin America, starting Wednesday in Mexico, where he said he will discourage people from coming to New York, telling them the city’s shelter system is at capacity and its resources are overwhelmed.

The city has been moving to suspend the so called right to shelter for months under the surge of migrants, arguing the requirement was never intended to be applied to a humanitarian crisis such as the latest influx.

The shelter requirement has been in place for more than four decades in New York City, following a legal agreement struck in 1981 that required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person. No other big city in America has such a requirement.

“With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” Adams, a Democrat, said in a statement. “New York City cannot continue to do this alone.”

Adams had heralded the shelter requirement at the start of the crisis as a display of the city’s empathy toward asylum seekers. In the months since, his rhetoric has hardened as the city has spent more than a billion dollars to rent space in hotels, erect large emergency shelters and provide government services for migrants who arrive without housing or jobs.

“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams said last month.

The mayor has also recently tightened New York shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding.

Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society, said the city’s request, if successful, would be disastrous for the city.

“What is the alternative? If we do not have a right to shelter, if we are turning people away from the shelter system, if people are now living in the streets, in the subways, in the parks, is that the outcome that they want?” he said. “That is something we have not seen in decades. I don’t think any New Yorker wants to see that. I don’t think city officials want to see that but that will be the result if they were to prevail here.”

As part of the four-day trip, Adams will travel to the Darién Gap — a lush, mountainous region connecting Central and South America along the Panama-Colombia border that also features about 50 miles of marshland — during the first weekend of October, City Hall sources told NBC New York. Given the extreme topography, it is one of the most perilous parts of the journey for asylum seekers, as they are required to hike, swim and trudge through parts of thick jungle on dangerous paths.

City Hall aides tell News 4 Adams’ upcoming trip is — in part — designed to examine what they describe as a misinformation pipeline that encourages migrants to continue crossing the border despite limited legal work opportunities in the U.S. and housing capacity in New York.

migrant crisis Sep 29, 2023

‘NYC cannot help you': City passing out flyers to migrants to discourage more arrivals

migrant crisis Sep 27, 2023

‘Status quo is not working:' Adams keeps pushing to change NYC right to shelter rules

migrant crisis Sep 8, 2023

Migrant influx ‘will destroy NYC,' Eric Adams says amid call for more federal aid

First, the mayor will depart for Mexico City on Wednesday and attend an international business conference the next morning, where City Hall said he will speak with “local and national leaders to learn more about the issues at the southern border” and the impacts on NYC. He will also visit Puebla Mexico, where city officials say a majority of NYC’s Mexican immigrants start their journey.

From there, Adams also plans to stop in Quito, Ecuador, where he will meet with local community organizations and asylee integration programs to discuss how the migrants are passing through Ecuador and what is being done to stop them.

The mayor will then go to Bogotá, Colombia, on Saturday and then head to the Darién Gap. Adams will return to the city on Sunday.

That message is the theme of a flyer which City Hall has shared with community organizations and the federal government as well. They also plan to distribute the flyers at migrant shelters in the city.

“There are people in our shelters who are telling their family members come to New York City and that they’ll get housing and that they’ll be able to stay with them,” NYC Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said.

Among the flyer’s claims: New York City resources have been exhausted and the city “cannot help you obtain a work permit” — which may be stretching facts.

“We have to be truthful about the challenges that New York City faces in providing adequate services for such a high number of migrant without embellishing anything,” NYC City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said.

Adams said it’s one thing for the city to shift its tone from last year when the mayor greeted asylum seekers with open arms — “We got you. We are gonna provide the services you need” — to this month, when the mayor said of the unending pace of more than 100,000 arrivals: “This issue will destroy New York City.”

The council speaker said city outreach teams are helping connect migrants to housing opportunities and jobs when possible.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said the White House has teamed up with the city and state to process the estimated 15,000 job seekers who arrived from Venezuela before July 31 and will get temporary protected status. The governor’s worry? A federal shutdown could undo that progress.

“It’s going to stop our ability to get people out of the shelters, which is exactly what Biden was trying to do,” Hochul said on CNN.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said the crisis is only escalating, with an uptick in arrivals this week and signs that volume may soon increase.

“We got word the city of El Paso will resume busing. On top of the buses already being sent here by Gov. Abbott and the state of Texas,” the deputy mayor said.

The local authorities have said the influx of homeless, jobless newcomers is unsustainable.

Speaking in New York Wednesday, the Republican Abbott agreed it was “unsustainable,” but said he’s not the person most to blame.

“The lead importer of migrants to New York is not Texas, it’s Joe Biden,” he said at a breakfast event held by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Abbot said he began the busing program in response to the plight of the small border towns in his state who do not have the resources to deal with border crossers.

“It’s a crisis. It’s chaotic and it must stop,” he said, urging the president to enforce laws he said gives the White House authority to “repel” migrants at the border.

“Until that time comes,” Abbott said, “Texas is going to continue to use every tool that we can to secure the border the best that we can.”

Those steps have included placing buoys — a “floating border wall” — in the Rio Grande to make it even harder to cross the turbulent river, where many migrants, including children, have drowned. Razor wire has also been uncoiled along the border. And the state has paid for many buses to transport migrants to New York and other big cities run by Democrats.

By Abbott’s count, Texas has given bus tickets to about 42,000 to start new lives elsewhere — with 15,800 sent to New York City since the spring of 2022. Many thousands more people, though, have gone to the northeast U.S. on their own, or been sent by social service organizations or municipalities.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has also been critical of the federal government, saying it hasn’t done enough to help with the cost of absorbing the wave of nearly 120,000 — and counting — that have arrived in the city. But his spokesperson on Wednesday also blamed Abbott.

“New Yorkers deserve better than being trapped between a vicious game of political hot potato,” said Kayla Mamelak. “So let’s stick to the facts: When thousands of asylum seekers arrived at Governor Abbott’s doorstep in pursuit of the American Dream, he chose to use them as political pawns.”

Abbott said unlike New York, which sometimes has advance notice of bus arrivals, his state gets no such warning. “What is going on in New York is calm and organized compared to the real chaos of what we see on the border,” he said, adding that New York is seeing only a fraction of the multitudes Texas has had to deal with over the years.

Last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again accused Abbott of turning the border crisis “into a political stunt.”

She said the White House has given the city $140 million in aid — though the city wants more. Last week, Biden’s administration gave hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers ffrom Venezuela temporary protected status, which would expedite their ability to legally work in the United States.

Other U.S. cities have also dealt with an influx of migrants trying to escape poverty, violence or oppression in their home nations.

In San Diego, the county’s board of supervisors declared border crossings by asylum seekers an “urgent humanitarian crisis” and pleaded with the White House for more aid.

Since Sept. 13, U.S. authorities have been dropping off migrants at transit centers in San Diego and the suburbs of El Cajon and Oceanside. “Migrants are being released across the county with little direction and few resources,” the county statement said, calling on the federal government to limit releases or provide more financial support.

San Diego, like other border cities, is generally only a temporary home for asylum-seekers, who fan out across the country to join other migrants, family and friends.

On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration appealed to Mexico and Central America to help address the “unprecedented numbers of vulnerable migrants transit through the region,” adding that long-term solutions are needed to solve the underlying problems that drive people from their own countries.

A judge on Tuesday gave the city one week to submit its motion in writing in court. Lawyers for the homeless are frustrated that after weeks of negotiations with the judge and state, Mayor Eric Adams is still trying to eliminate what they say is a critical right.

“It doesn’t make sense right this moment for the city to ask to be relieved of its obligation to protect people from dying on the streets of New York,” Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said.

The Legal Aid Society expressed concern Tuesday after emerging from the latest closed door meeting with State Supreme Court Judge Erika Edwards on the right to shelter.

Judge Edwards announced that despite productive negotiations, the city still plans to move ahead in its quest to limit the right to shelter. Legal Aid questioned the move given all the new help coming the city’s way from the state and federal government, including the opening of Floyd Bennett Field and plans to get more migrants working.

“To live independently in exactly the way that the mayor asked and yet just as that plan is getting rolling, we’ve learned today that the city plans to ask for permission to make a motion anyway to be relieved of the right to shelter in some way,” Goldfein said.

“We currently have more than 60,000 migrants in our care and an average of 10,000 more still arriving every month seeking asylum, but the Callahan decree was never intended to apply to the circumstances our city is currently experiencing. As we continue to seek a national solution to this national crisis, we know the status quo is not working for longtime unhoused New Yorkers or for asylum seekers,” a spokesperson for Adams said.

The news came hours after a different judge on Staten Island said there is no right to shelter in New York and no emergency that necessitates housing migrants in an empty school building in the borough.

“The decision on Staten Island is wrong on the law and the facts,” Goldfein said.

Even though Staten Island’s Judge Wayne Ozzi ruled there is no right to shelter in New York, and that may be what Adams ultimately wants, Ozzi was asked to rule on the legality of housing migrants in the school building.

The right to shelter case was before Judge Edwards in Manhattan, who on Tuesday recused herself from the cast citing the potential appearance of conflict of interest without any details.

The price to apply is as high as $545, according to immigration advocates and the Department of Homeland Security. However, the reason migrants are in such a dire need of work permits is because they lack those resources.

Put simply: If unemployed migrants could afford hundreds of dollars in fees, they likely would not be in need of expedited work permits.

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The existing process could create obstacles that would prevent eligible Venezuelans from accessing TPS and getting work authorizations quickly. And while there is a waiver program for people experiencing financial hardship — which is the case for many of the asylum seekers — that process is not available online.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services processes these fee waiver submissions outside of the online application portal when ruling on the aid requests. Officials in the agency told NBC on Tuesday that efforts were being explored to move the waiver process online.

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy confirmed Friday afternoon that the Adams administration is asking the federal government to put the fee waiver process up online so as not to delay access to completing the applications. As of Friday evening, the city said that anyone asking for a fee waiver (if they are even aware there is one available to them) would have to apply on paper through the U.S. Postal Service.

“What we’d like to do is do this online, to expedite and get people work authorization as soon as possible,” Levy told News 4.

Levy said City Hall is seeking out philanthropies — and separately, businesses that are in need of new employees — to donate to a fund that will help cover some of the fees.

That condition is problematic for the migrants, as they are living in temporary shelters without any permanent mailing addresses. Perhaps most importantly, it delays the process even further.

“Another thing we’re going to be asking for from our federal partners is so that you can get work authorization while your TPS application is still pending, because we’ve actually heard stories of people who have had TPS applications pending since March 2021.”

The news comes as New York City grapples with feeding and sheltering more than 60,000 migrants, most of whom are ineligible to work under current federal law for at least 180 days after filing an application for asylum. Officials say roughly 40% of migrants who have arrived since last year are from Venezuela.

“After reviewing the country conditions in Venezuela and consulting with interagency partners, Secretary Mayorkas determined that an 18-month TPS extension and redesignation are warranted based on Venezuela’s increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions,” the Homeland Security announcement read Wednesday night.

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Federal officials said the TPS redesignation qualifies hundreds of thousands of migrants immediately eligibility for work authorization.

Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have been pressing Biden to use his executive authority to intervene and grant access to TPS, which would not subject migrants to the 180-day waiting period. The Biden administration is also planning to expedite work authorizations so that they will be processed in 30 days, according to the officials.

As News 4 previously reported, Democrats like Hillary Clinton and big donors turned up the heat on the president, some withholding donations to the campaign over his handling of the issue. In a statement, the Biden administration said that the president “has called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform since his first day in office.”

A White House official said that Venezuelan nationals will be eligible to submit work permit applications immediately, and DHS will process applications faster for those who arrive using lawful pathways — with the process set to take on average about four weeks.

The announcement explains why Hochul was tight-lipped on Wednesday when asked for specifics on her private conversation with Biden on Tuesday night, according to a source in her administration who says the governor was aware this was coming.

The New York State Department of Labor already has a plan to connect work eligible migrants with work opportunities so that there will be jobs lined up when the works papers arrive, according to a state government source.

Top Democrats in the state applauded Wednesday’s decision, referring to the federal intervention as a “welcome step forward.”

“As a result of this decision, immigrants will be temporarily allowed to work, fill needed jobs and support their families while awaiting an asylum determination. The decision will also substantially reduce the cost to New York taxpayers with respect to the sheltering asylum-seekers. It is estimated by DHS that more than half of the immigrants in New York will be affected by this decision, we thank the Biden administration,” U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a joint statement.

Adams also expressed support for the move, while calling on the administration to extend TPS to the additional tens of thousands of migrants in the city’s care who fled from other countries. The mayor estimates the change will help about 15,000 people within the city’s shelter system — roughly fewer than one in four.

A Cape Cod-style home in New City now at the center of the probe is zoned for a single family, but looks can be deceiving based on what officials said they found inside.

“We believe that at least 31, maybe more, individuals are living in this house. Some of the most egregious conditions we have ever seen: the electrical totally overloaded, extension cords all over the place,” Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann said. “You can see that’s the garage, those are children on those mattresses in the garage. This would have been an absolute disaster if people would have died in this house.”

Back in March, five people died in a deadly house fire in Spring Valley where authorities cited the owner for code violations. Clarkstown officials secured a search warrant for the New City home last Friday after getting an anonymous tip and talking with immigrants who were searching for clothes at a local drop-off bin.

“We believe this is organized. We believe that there are people behind this from the statements that have been relayed to our inspectors and the police. These folks talked about a kind of chain: people were coming through, that they would come into the country, stay in this migrant flophouse for a short period of time and that they would be going to other locations,” Hoehmann said.

Officials said the owner of the home is listed as 29-year-old Shloima Koppel of Monsey; no one answered at his address on Monday. Town attorneys went to court in the morning for a temporary restraining order and immediate eviction of anyone left in the New City home.

Koppel owners at least one other rental property in nearby Spring Valley. The county is now investigating all of Koppel’s properties and officials are demanding more.

“I’m calling upon the state attorney general to immediately open up the investigation into the movement of human beings all over this state. I believe it’s human trafficking and I believe there’s money involved and it’s illegal,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said.

Authorities are trying to determine how large this effort may be. The owner of the rental home, meanwhile, is expected to be hit with a number of violations.

Hillary Clinton has been pushing the Biden administration to do more to help New York City manage its migrant crisis.

Clinton is “doing what she can to persuade the administration” to help the city manage the influx of 100,000 migrants, including taking steps to allow for work authorizations, an official familiar with the matter said. 

A spokesperson for Clinton confirmed her involvement as an advocate for NYC. Clinton is a former U.S. senator for New York and worked as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration when Biden was Vice President. 

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Two sources familiar with Clinton’s advocacy say that she agrees with Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who have voiced frustration with what they have said is a lack of help from the White House and Congress with migrants — even though immigration is a federal issue.

New York officials have said some in the Biden Administration believe New York’s “right to shelter law” serves as a magnet for migrants to travel to the city, and they want the city to reform that policy before offering additional assistance. But a spokesman for the Biden White House denied that saying, “any assertion that the Administration will not help the city or state of New York until the right to shelter law is repealed or modified is patently inaccurate.”

A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about Clinton’s advocacy for the city.

President Biden is set to come to New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly and to host and raise money at four separate fundraisers for his campaign. 

Numerous Democratic leaders in New York and numerous party fundraisers continue to voice concerns behind the scenes about Biden’s handling – or mishandling – of the migrant crisis. Several political insiders say the optics of Clinton and Biden not being in sync on the migrants issue could be problematic for Biden.   

The sources tell NBC New York that based on their conversations, they believe the Biden team might have offered New York City more relief, if not for their concerns that the right-to-shelter policy provides a never-ending incentive for migrants to continue coming across the border.

“That’s why they’re reluctant,” said one State official.

Two New Yorkers who requested anonymity because they were describing private conversations say White House staffers have noted that cities like Los Angeles and Denver have only a couple thousand migrants while New York City has almost 60,000.

The White House denies that concerns about the right-to-shelter have impacted federal aid to New York City in any way.

“Any assertion that the Administration will not help the city or state of New York unless the right to shelter law is repealed or modified is patently inaccurate and ignores the whole-of-government efforts currently helping the city and state,” said White House spokesman Seth Schuster in a statement.

The City, State and the Legal Aid society are in discussions before a State Supreme Court Justice, after Mayor Eric Adams asked the court to consider reopening a four-decade-old right to shelter settlement to give him more flexibility.

The Biden administration cites reasons why they have not implemented the “fixes” the city and state are requesting.

For instance, the mayor has asked for the president to declare a state of emergency, which could unlock additional funding, but federal officials say under the Stafford Act, an emergency declaration is limited to disaster situations like hurricanes or wildfires.

Gov. Katy Hochul has said the Department of Homeland Security could circumvent the minimum six month wait to become eligible for work permits by granting Temporary Protected Status to migrants from certain countries, like Venezuela. But federal officials say that pathway to work would not necessarily be shorter, because asylum seekers would still need to apply for TPS and be processed.

Donors furious about Biden’s handling of crisis

Some Biden fundraisers and big donors say the president should expect an earful when he arrives in New York next week. The president will be attending the UN General Assembly and holding four fundraisers, including a “Biden on Broadway” event.

Several local Democratic sources involved in fundraising for Biden confirmed the migrant issue is impacting donations. 

“You are correct,” one said. “Some people decided to send a message that New York has been stiff-armed.”

A different fundraiser, who is involved in hosting a “lawyers for Biden” event next Wednesday, says the event is struggling to bring in money. “This issue is a major, major problem for bundlers and donors who are attempting to make the third quarter look positive.”

The fundraisers say the Biden campaign is aware of the criticism and even provided event organizers a list of talking points titled “Campaign talkers on migrants,” intended to assuage the donor concerns.  Among the points: that President Biden inherited a broken system, that he is working collaboratively with his New York partners, and that it’s Congress that needs to act.

The Biden Campaign did not provide a comment in response to our request.

The Biden administration has been trying hard in recent days to project the message that they are delivering much needed help to the city. They announced plans Tuesday to send 50 staffers to New York City for asylum application help and senior Biden aide Tom Perez was back in town Thursday to meet with business leaders.

Some big donors unhappy about the migrant situation in their hometown say they do not want to hurt Biden or help Donald Trump, but are using their money as leverage.

“This is a real thing,” said one prominent New York public relations executive who represents several wealthy Democratic donors. “It is a criticism the president should be ready to hear and be ready with an answer when he comes to New York.”

Read the full White House Statement here:

Since the first day of his Administration, President Biden has called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Without Congressional action, this Administration has been working to build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system and we’ve led the largest expansion of lawful pathways for immigration in decades. The federal government is working to provide information and services to ensure that those who are eligible submit their work permit applications immediately.

The Biden-Harris Administration has sent more than a million emails and text messages to hundreds of thousands of migrants who may be eligible for a work permit, to remind them of their eligibility to apply. These messages were sent out in multiple languages, including Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Ukrainian. Additionally, in September, 50 federal personnel will deploy to New York to educate people on the immigration system and how to apply for work permits. We are also distributing Employment Authorization Document flyers directly to migrants and to local and state governments, non-profits, and other stakeholders to distribute further. These flyers include a QR code for migrants to access the EAD application instantly.

At the request of the city and state, the National Park Service and local officials are finalizing a lease for portions of Floyd Bennett Field, this will serve as one of the largest shelter spaces available to the city. The Federal government has provided the City and State of New York more than $140 million in federal funding this Fiscal Year and we have requested an additional $600 million for the Shelter and Services Program in our Supplemental request. We continue to call on Congress to fulfil that request and provide communities across the country the support they need.

Any assertion that the Administration will not help the city or state of New York unless the right to shelter law is repealed or modified is patently inaccurate, and ignores the whole-of-government efforts currently helping the city and state manage recently arrived migrants.

A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block has set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbors: “Immigrants are not safe here.”

The message, recorded in six languages, blares all day from a loudspeaker on Scott Herkert’s well-groomed front lawn on Staten Island, exhorting migrants to “go back” to another part of the city because the community doesn’t want them. It urges people brought to a temporary shelter inside a long-vacant Roman Catholic high school not to get off the bus. The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches.

It is one of several ways some people have let shelter residents know they are not welcome. Hundreds of protesters have also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere.

The women and families placed by the city inside the former Saint John Villa Academy have heard the message loud and clear.

“We have to close our eyes and close our ears,” said Aminetou El Alewai, a 39-year-old woman from Mauritania who moved into the shelter last week. “We are good people. We are not criminals. We came because of problems in our country.”

As thousands of migrants continue to arrive in New York City, officials have scrambled to open new emergency shelters, turning to tent facilities, school gyms and parks to comply with a state law requiring housing for the homeless. Though Staten Island is home to only a small fraction of those shelters, they have generated an outsize share of animosity.

The hostile reception coincides with increasingly dire rhetoric from Mayor Eric Adams, who warned last week that the migrant crisis would “destroy New York City.” The Democrat has insisted that the more than 100,000 who have arrived so far are welcome, but he has said the cost of housing tens of thousands of people could be as much as $12 billion over the next three years. Adams has rejected allegations from advocates of using migrants as “props” in an ongoing bid for federal money.

Staten Island is known for leaning conservative and Republican in a mostly liberal, Democratic city.

Herkert, a New York state court system employee, also has a tarp on his lawn painted with a profane version of the phrase, “No way!” Gesturing at the largely empty street in front of his home Tuesday, Herkert said the new shelter has upended his block’s quiet charm and brought toilets and dumpsters to the other side of his fence.

While the loudspeaker message — in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Urdu, Chinese and English — warns that the former school is infested with roaches and mold, Alewai said she has found it to be perfectly clean, if a bit uncomfortable.

As Alewai spoke to Associated Press reporters on a sidewalk, parents picked up their children from a neighboring private school, directing nervous glances and, in one case, harsh words at the new arrivals.

“I am sorry for the trouble of the woman who was just talking,” Alewai said in French. “I came as a refugee to New York and they brought me here. Indeed, I am not comfortable here.”

Both employees and residents of the shelter said protesters have cursed at and threatened them, frequently playing loud music late into the night. Employee and lifelong Queens native Gabrielle Dasilva said she was recently told to go back to her home country.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office, Kayla Mamelak, said the administration was “disturbed to learn about the false messages being played outside the St. John’s Villa Academy respite site” and police are working to “maintain the peace in the area.”

“As always, New York City continues to provide care for asylum seekers with compassion and care,” she said.

City Councilman David Carr, a Republican who attended Saint John Villa Academy, defended the audio recording as protected First Amendment activity and said his constituents have good reason to worry about the high cost of housing migrants.

“This is an opportunity for folks in the neighborhood who are angry to demonstrate that constructively,” Carr said. “They’re just trying to ensure that their voices are heard.”

John Tabacco, a right-wing media personality and candidate for city comptroller, said he collaborated on the effort with Herkert and the loudspeakers messages have clearly resonated with neighbors.

“There have been a lot of concerned citizens out there, and they’ve been spending a lot of time doing some good old fashioned civil disobedience,” he said.

Around the corner, John Gurriera, a 72-year-old resident of Staten Island, said he was disappointed by the reaction from some of his neighbors, which he described as “not very Christian.”

“This is New York City,” he added. “We all came from someplace else.”

___

Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Starting Wednesday, the White House is sending a team of federal staffers as interpreters and support staff to help asylum seekers with the process of obtaining the work permits they need to start looking for jobs.

As the number of people seeking asylum continues to rise — with an estimated 59,000 people currently in New York City shelters — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has been exploring ways to go around the long wait for work permits at the federal level, including a state-level worker permit program.

“This would be unprecedented and I believe the federal government would believe that we will need their authority to move forward with state work permits but, as I said, we have to let them work,” Hochul said during a press conference.

Several legislative proposals in Albany could make New York the first state to circumvent federal law… allowing those who have filed federal asylum-claims to be granted work licenses within forty-five (45) days.

However, Hochul has not endorsed any particular bill and did not rule out calling a special session to address the issue.

“After 180 days people are legally able to work in our state,” Hochul said, adding that “we have asked to speed up that timeframe. A hundred days is still a long time but let’s start getting people processed then get their work authorization.”

But there are a lot of questions in terms of work authorizations for migrants, with officials emphasizing that this is very clearly a federal jurisdiction and that there is already a significant group of recently arrived people eligible to apply for work orders who have not done so.

White House staff is also looking to meet with local business leaders and exploring ways to activate the migrant workforce through legal permits.

On a related matter, federal officials confirmed that a lease is set to be finalized imminently for the use of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to serve as an emergency relief center for migrants.

The mayor’s comments came during a town hall in which he offered an ominous assessment of the ongoing migrant crisis.

“I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City, destroy New York City,” Adams said Wednesday night. “Month after month I stood up and said this is gonna come to a neighborhood near you. Well, we’re here. We’re getting no support on this national crisis and we’re receiving no support.”

The next day, faith and community leaders delivered a show up support for the migrants on Staten Island, which has become a recent gathering point for boisterous opposition.

“Many Staten Islanders are saying yes to compassion in our backyards, yes to shelters for asylum seekers in our borough,” one speaker said.

Protestors sought to drown out clergy, who noted many of the people in opposition are the children of immigrants themselves.

“We don’t even know who’s living in here. And if they would have did it right and they would have came here legally, we would know and we would have different feelings towards it,” one protestor said.

The city is housing migrants at St. John Villa Academy at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge amid strong community opposition.

“Staten Island is saying send them out to Manhattan, Manhattan is saying send them out to Queens, Queens is saying send them out to Brooklyn,” Adams said amid his Wednesday remarks.

Faith leaders at the Thursday rally said this is a crisis the city can get through.

“This is not the first crises that New Yorkers have faced. We are, for goodness sake, New Yorkers. This will not be the last crisis that we face if we’ve made it through the pandemic. We can make it through this crisis,” Rev. Dr. Demetrius S. Carolina said.

Adams projects the migrant crisis will create a $12 billion budget gap, with the city supporting 110,000 asylum seekers and counting.

“What I want for him is a future,” Kimberly Carchipulla said in Spanish of her son, one of nearly 800,000 New York City public school students who headed off to class Thursday for their first day of the new school year.

That is what school officials want, too, as the city’s classrooms work to accommodate nearly 20,000 migrant children newly arrived in the U.S. — a number that could swell as record numbers of families cross the border from Mexico in hopes of gaining asylum.

Several major U.S. cities have struggled with an influx of many thousands of asylum seekers who have filled up homeless shelters after entering the U.S.

New York City’s shelter system has been especially overwhelmed, but Mayor Eric Adams has sought to reassure parents and community groups that the city’s nearly 1,900 schools — which have a long track record of welcoming immigrants with limited English skills — are well prepared to welcome migrant children into classrooms.

The huge public schools system has around 3,400 teachers licensed to teach English as a second language and more than 1,700 certified bilingual teachers fluent in Spanish, the language spoken by the majority of migrant families, according to Education Chancellor David C. Banks. Some schools expected to get a higher share of students living in shelters are getting more funding, with $110 million allocated for immediate needs.

“We are welcoming all these new migrant students into our schools with open arms,” Banks said Thursday during a first-day-of-school ceremony at a Bronx public school. “We know it’s a larger political issue and the mayor and others have to deal with. But when they show up in our schools, they’re going to get the best that we have.”

That’s encouraging news for Carchipulla and her son.

In his calmer moments as he headed off to school, Damien worried whether he’d be able to understand his teacher or easily make friends.

For the past two months, his family has been living in a room at Manhattan’s historic Roosevelt Hotel, which after years of being closed was converted into a city-run shelter this year for newly arrived migrants hoping to find work and a better life for their children.

Carchipulla’s immediate worry was getting Damien to class early, traveling by city bus and foot to reach his school 75 blocks away in East Harlem. Scores of other families gathered at the school’s gates waiting to be let in.

In recent weeks, his mother, 22, has vacillated between elation and worry, especially fretting over her son’s ability to keep pace with his classmates. And she hopes there are good teachers at her son’s new school, teachers who would be kind and patient.

It’s been a hard few months for the family after leaving relatives behind in their small Ecuadorian city about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of the country’s largest city, Guayaquil. In recent months, Ecuador has struggled with growing violence and political instability.

“We came to a place where we don’t have family. It was hard. There were days where I cried because they were hard and difficult days because I knew that I wasn’t going to go back to my family,” Carchipulla said. Nonprofits such as New Immigrant Community Empowerment, more commonly known as NICE, have helped families work toward stability.

Illegal border crossings fell sharply after the Biden administration introduced new restrictions in May. But the numbers are again rising — pushed higher this time by families with children. According to preliminary data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, August was the busiest month ever for apprehensions for migrant families crossing the border with children from Mexico.

Families with children now account for about half of arrests of people crossing the border illegally from Mexico, with more than 91,000 arrests in August, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss numbers and spoke on condition of anonymity.

That’s dramatically up from the 60,161 arrests in July and 39,305 in June. The August tally surpassed the previous high of 84,486 in May 2019. Overall, arrests from illegal crossings from Mexico topped 177,000 in August, the official said, up from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June.

New York City has welcomed 112,000 since spring 2022, nearly 60,000 temporarily living in government shelters.

Advocacy groups are closely watching how the city’s schools respond to the migrant influx, but sympathize with city officials who continue to plead for more money from Albany and the White House.

“Any city would struggle to receive the large number of children that are coming at one time, who are also learning English, as well as living in temporary housing or in temporary shelters,” said Natasha Quiroga, the director of education policy at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs.

“The city has attempted to create some sort of plan, but there is still just not enough there, just not enough resources to go around,” she said.

There were isolated problems on opening day, Quiroga said, most having to do with enrollment paperwork. There were some reports of long lines at some campuses, but that is often part of the normal chaos during the first day of school, she said.

When she recently held a workshop at the Roosevelt, more than 100 people showed up.

“The U.S. American education system and the New York City educational system are incredibly complicated and very different from other countries,” Quiroga said.

When Carchipulla’s husband broached the idea of heading north, he suggested he go alone. But she insisted that they remain together.

Her husband has been only able to find occasional work, such as jobs at construction sites. They are hoping he can get working papers as soon as possible. Kimberly wants to work, too, but she has two young children who cannot be left alone.

Carchipulla dreams of her son developing a profession, maybe someday joining the masses of hurried people wearing suits, ties and shiny shoes.

His mother beamed as Damien spoke, then laughed when the boy recited a few words in English.

“It will be easier for him to learn English,” she said. When Damien does, she is depending on him to “help me with things I don’t understand.”

For his first day of school, Damien had much simpler plans: “I want to meet new friends,” he said. “And I want to learn English.” ___ This story has been corrected to show that Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city, not the capital city.

___

Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press reporter Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, contributed.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ramping up his calls for the White House to expedite work permits for thousands of asylum seekers.

Adams joined dozens of elected leaders in Lower Manhattan Thursday calling on migrants in the city to be permitted to work as more people continue to arrive. However, they weren’t the only ones speaking up — there was a small, but vocal group trying to drown out that message.

There were competing views on an issue that has New York in a showdown with the federal government erupting Thursday at the American Dream Works rally In Foley Square.

“We’re saying we must expedite work visas. It’s just common sense,” Adams said referring to the more than 100,000 asylum seekers who crossed the border and sought refuge in New York City over the past year.

Carlos, who arrived from Peru three months ago, was present at the rally to ask for work visas to be expedited saying he wants to work.

TPS allows people from certain countries to get that opportunity faster and general federal rules mandate an 150-day waiting period for asylum seekers — a time period the crowd present at Foley Square, which was filled with union members, say asylum seekers don’t have, also adding there are thousands of vacant job positions.

“There are plenty of jobs for them. They aren’t taking anybody’s jobs,” a protestor at the rally said.

Nora Danielson Lanier, a Brooklyn mom with a sign that read “LET OUR NEW NEIGHBORS FEED THEIR KIDS!”, agrees.

“I wanted to show my kids how to stand up for what’s right and to welcome our neighbors,” Lanier, who supports work permits for asylum seekers, said.

This week Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Washington D.C. to speak to members of the Biden administration. She called it a “frank” and “productive” conversation, adding that the president and staff agreed to provide resources to identify migrants that are already cleared to work.

“This is a critical first step but make no mistake: it is not enough to fully address this crisis,” Hochul said in a statement.

Not everyone in Lower Manhattan Thursday supported the governor and mayor’s vision. Police escorted a handful of these protestors away. One told News 4 New York he is not against immigration, he’s against letting people crossing the border cut in front of the line. While another one said this is about the more than $1 billion the city has spent.

“[Adams] is crashing the city’s budget on purpose,” Jonathan Rinaldi, a republican candidate for the New York City Council, was heard shouting. “This has nothing to do with immigration.”

While onstage, the mayor said the city spent that money to live up to its obligation as a sanctuary city and then he demanded that the White House step up.

“Get on the field and fight this battle with us,” he said.

Not all of the asylum seekers are from Spanish-speaking countries: some are also from Africa and island nations.

Several local, state and federal leaders told News 4 New York that discussions on the matter are ongoing.

In comments at New York Law School, Adams publicly and bluntly calling Hochul’s positioning on asylum seekers wrong. The governor has rejected the mayor’s plea to relocate migrants to communities across the state, thereby distributing the burden more equally.

“Governor Hochul has been a partner on subway safety, on crime, on a host of things,” he said Tuesday. “But I think on this issue, the governor is wrong.”

Several suburban regions, inside New York City and out, have resisted the idea of migrant shelters to accommodate the tens of thousands that have traveled into the country. Hochul has so far backed them, citing New York City’s unique right to shelter status as reason to continue the asylum seeker influx to the five boroughs.

“She’s the governor of the State of New York. New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be a part of this,” the mayor added.

Last week, Hochul laid out her position on the matter.

“In 1981, the city of New York and the Coalition for the Homeless signed an agreement that the city would provide shelter to anyone who seeks it. This is an agreement that does not apply to the state’s other 57 counties which is one of the reasons we cannot and will not force other parts of the state to shelter migrants,” she said.

Her spokesperson on Tuesday said it was “unfortunate that the mayor is choosing to point fingers at the state,” instead of focusing on solutions.

The very public disagreement between Hochul and Adams is upstaging their joint displeasure with the White House. Both the mayor and governor have consistently asked President Joe Biden for federal aid to help house migrants and for expedited work permits, which would allow asylum seekers to get jobs and pay their own way.

So far, the White House has not granted those requests.

The nonprofit Partnership for New York City, which represents hundreds of business leaders, stressed that Adams and Hochul agree upon far more than they disagree.

“We can’t handle what is a federal issue and I think that is the key issue here. I don’t find any distance between the mayor and the governor on that issue,” Kathryn Wylde, president of the nonprofit, said.

This week, more than 100 New York City business executives joined in writing President Biden to urge him to get control of the border and expedite those migrant work permits, citing labor shortages in a number of industries.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration fired off its own letters to both Adams and Hochul, highlighting steps taken by federal government to ease the crisis and also criticizing “structural and operational issues” with the way City Hall has dealt with tens of thousands of asylum seekers.

Public feuds were commonplace between former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Adams and Hochul have mostly been in lockstep. That is until now.

The influx of more than 100,000 asylum seekers now driving a wedge between New York’s most powerful leaders.

In a rare public address, Hochul said she had sent the president a letter asking him to expedite work permits for migrants and provide financial resources to help care for the estimated 100,000 asylum seekers who have come to the state in the last year, mostly to New York City.

“The reality is that we’ve managed thus far without substantive support from Washington, and despite the fact that this is a national, and indeed an inherently federal issue,” Hochul said in speech delivered in Albany. “But New York has shouldered this burden for far too long.”

The public plea comes after months of private requests to the White House.

The central request of the governor’s letter was for the president to speed up the months-long bureaucratic process under which migrants can obtain work permits, and earn enough money to get off of public assistance.

“Let them work,” Hochul said, in remarks directed at the White House.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a Democrat, has repeatedly made an identical demand.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.

New York has always prided itself on its ability to absorb waves of immigrants, but it has struggled to handle the thousands who have come over the past year, many on buses paid for by the state of Texas to rid itself of people entering the U.S. across the southern border.

New York Democrats initially blamed Republican governors of southern states for the crisis, but have increasingly sought to characterize it is a national problem that should be solved by the federal government.

The situation has also provided Republicans in the state with a new political front from which to attack Democrats after an election year where the GOP made gains by criticizing Democrats as slow to respond to concerns over crime.

“Kathy Hochul’s solution after twiddling her thumbs after so many months is to write a strongly worded letter to Joe Biden? Come on, it’s not serious,” said David Laska, New York Republican Party spokesperson.

The situation has also created tension between Democrats. As New York City’s homeless shelter system became overwhelmed, and the cost of housing migrants in hotels and temporary shelters mounted, Adams began organizing bus trips of his own to take migrants to other parts of the state, to the frustration of officials in those communities.

Lawyers for Hochul and Adams have sparred in court over how best to house and expend resources to care for the migrants.

The state has earmarked up to $1.5 billion for its migrant response. Hochul asked Biden for financial assistance to help cover those costs and a projected $4.5 billion needed next year. In addition, the governor requested that the city and state be allowed to use federally-owned properties to house migrants.

New York City shelters have been at near capacity and officials have scrambled to set up temporary housing in hotels, recreational centers, school gyms and a hospital parking lot. The city is legally obligated to find shelter for anyone needing it.

Republicans are already seeing the response to this wave of migrants as an opportunity for campaigning in the 2024 election.

“New Yorkers won’t forget what happened on Kathy Hochul’s watch,” Laska said. “They won’t forget that communities from all over the state have been strained beyond their ability to handle this influx of migrants and the real solution is to close the border.”

The governor of New York received the news, and immediately shared word with reporters, during an afternoon press conference.

“Good news: we are in receipt of the proposed lease for Floyd Bennett Field,” Hochul said.

The move to shelter migrants on the federal airfield comes after month of Hochul working her White House contacts. She never let on that the Biden administration had previously nixed the idea.

“This is a big step because the answer one month ago was ‘no,'” Hochul said.

The space and additional 2,500 beds will undoubtedly be needed. Eight hundred of the 1,000 Creedmoor facility in Queens are now full, and 200 people have already moved into tents on Randall’s Island.

Hochul also announced the state will spend another $20 million to provide casework to migrants. She says the goal is top help asylum seekers in the large relief centers who might want to leave or go back home and file their asylum claims so they can get on a path to work.

The governor delivered the news the same day Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Israel and one week after the state’s lawyers issued a critique of the city’s management of the Adams administration’s management of the migrant crisis: from leaving people to sleep on the street, to failing to spend $10 million the state handed over to the city last year to help with asylum claims.

“We’ll be watching closely, I assure you, because we want the outcome which is process these individuals,” the governor noted.

Hochul said she would not help to move migrants out of the city to other counties in the state until they’re in the pipeline for work authorization. The Legal Aid Society, however, disagrees.

“The right to shelter comes from the state constitution, which applies statewide,” Joshua Goldfein said.

The state, the city and the Legal Aid Society are all expected back in court later this week to discuss the crisis response.

“Our compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not. This is the budgetary reality we are facing if we don’t get the additional support we need,” Adams said during an address that sought to put the onus on the Biden administration to help relieve his city from the growing financial burden.

“New Yorkers did not create an international humanitarian crisis. But our city’s residents have been left to deal with this crisis almost entirely on our own,” the mayor said in an address Wednesday morning.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently dispatched a small team to New York City to help determine how the federal government should respond.

The federal government has so far promised the city $160 million to help — although the city’s budget director, Jacques Jiha, told reporters that the city has yet to receive a “single dollar” of that money. A city spokesperson later clarified that requests for that money have been made but the delay could be because of routine bureaucratic reasons.

Since the spring of 2022, nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City seeking shelter.

With the city’s shelters near capacity and more migrants arriving, the crisis is unlikely to abate anytime soon. As of Sunday, the city said it was housing more than 82,000 people, including nearly 30,000 children.

The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, among the mayor’s most vociferous critics, echoed the mayor’s plea for help.

“This is a moment that requires the full resources and authority of government from all levels, and the city should not have to shoulder the response without meaningful assistance from both the Biden and Hochul administrations,” the groups said in a statement.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul does not dispute the city needs more money, saying “it is far more expensive than anyone had imagined.”

She said she expects to ask lawmakers in Albany to provide another $1 billion to help the city, on top of the $1 billion already allocated.

The state will reimburse the city for the cost of operating a tent city for adult migrants on Randalls Island, Adams said.

“As the number of asylum seekers in our care continues to grow by hundreds every day, stretching our system to its breaking point and beyond, it has become more and more of a Herculean effort to find enough beds every night,” Adams, a Democrat, said in a news release.

“We’re grateful to Governor Hochul and New York state for their partnership in opening this new humanitarian relief center and covering the costs, and we need more of the same from all levels of government,” said Adams, who has repeatedly asked the federal government to provide more financial support to efforts to shelter migrants in New York City.

The city has rented out hotels to house migrants and has placed people in locations including a cruise ship terminal and a former police academy building as tens of thousands of asylum seekers have arrived over the past year.

More than 57,200 asylum seekers are in the city’s care now, Adams said.

City officials announced a plan last month to house 1,000 migrants in the parking lot of a state psychiatric hospital in Queens.

More recently, city officials began last week to send migrants to recreation centers at two Brooklyn parks, McCarren and Sunset.

Officials set up a migrant center last October on Randalls Island, in the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, but then announced three weeks later that it would close the tent complex after the number of people being bused from southern border states diminished.

Less than 24 hours after hundreds of asylum seekers were seen sleeping on a sidewalk outside New York City’s arrival intake center in midtown, all the migrants were suddenly gone Thursday afternoon.

The stunning development left the sidewalk empty in front of the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street and Madison Avenue — a sight that had not been seen in some time, as some had been staying there for days.

Witnesses and sources with City Hall said that the asylum seekers were awakened in the morning, processed and moved somewhere with a cot. Police were seen dismantling the barricades that had corralled the migrants into an outdoor pen for the world to see, drawing attention to the city’s plight.

The images also brought criticism to Mayor Eric Adams, who warned earlier in the week “this is not going to get any better, it’s only going to go downhill from here.”

A source within the Adams administration said they do not expect another line to form, at least not soon, because for now they have managed to find enough space to avoid more migrants sleeping on the street. City Hall called it insulting to suggest that allowing a several-day-long refugee line in the street was a political stunt.

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The night prior, the Legal Aid Society said its lawyers went to court to petition a judge, asking for an emergency hearing to receive intervention on behalf of their clients’ health and safety.

“Thankfully, soon after we wrote to the court, the City found alternate spaces for the people who were waiting on the street outside the Roosevelt Hotel and those new arrivals were transferred to interim sites,” a joint statement from Legal Aid and Coalition for the Homeless said Thursday afternoon.

City officials drew a line in the sand earlier in the week when they notably stopped guaranteeing that they would continue building more and more shelters for migrants as quickly as they come.

In a statement Thursday evening, the administration said that they have received more than 95,000 asylum seekers since Spring 2022.

“Children and families continue to be prioritized and are found a bed every night, but, as we have said repeatedly, our system has reached a breaking point. We have simply run out of space for adult migrants, yet are still receiving hundreds of new migrants daily,” a statement from City Hall read. “We are doing our best to offer placements whenever we have space available, have two additional humanitarian relief centers scheduled to come online in the coming weeks to serve this population.”

A City Hall source said that some faith-based organizations were able to take a number of migrants Wednesday night, adding that the line outside the Roosevelt Hotel “likely” goes up and down. Mayor Adams’ chief of staff said that a church in Long Island City took in about 130 single adult men who were in line.

Officials at City Hall on Wednesday said migrants could soon be living up in other iconic areas of the city, including places like Central Park.

“Everything is on the table,” NYC Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said Wednesday. “As of July 30, we have 107,900 people in our care, including 56,600 asylum seekers. Over 95,600 people have come through our system since last spring.”

According to the city’s tracking, more than 2,300 migrants entered its system in just one week between July 24 and July 30.