Nov. 18, 2023
By Bethany Ranero
Staff Writer
The United States is known as a country of immigrants, but it is now in crisis because of the number of migrants it has admitted.
Each day, U.S. border officers have been processing about 1,500 migrants at official ports of entry, mostly under a Biden administration system that allows prospective asylum seekers in Mexico to schedule an appointment to enter the country through the government phone app CBP One.
Overwhelmed by the influx of migrants, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing migrants from the United States’ southern border to cities including Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
New York City’s migrant population is now at an all-time high. According to USA Today, in September, city officials testified in front of the New York City Council that over 116,000 migrants have sought refuge in the city since the spring of 2022.
Migrants are coming to the United States to better the lives of themselves and their children, but it is causing a lot of disruption.
Not only is housing in short supply but so are available seats in public schools.
First, the shelters that were established to help the homeless are overcrowded. According to the New York Times, the migrant wave has nearly doubled the city’s homeless population with more than 100,000 people now living in city shelters. It also reported that the city has estimated it would spend about $5 billion this fiscal year to house and feed migrants. In the next three years, the city projects resources to support migrants will cost about $12 billion.
Mayor Eric Adams appealed to Congress for financial support, but it did not grant the funding he requested. Therefore, local taxpayers are handling the expenses, which include migrant housing and education.
Adams announced in September that due to the financial strains migrants have put on the city, all city agencies’ budgets would be cut by 5%. Later that month, Adams introduced a project to bring “a little more housing in every neighborhood,” which he hopes would lead to 500,000 new homes in New York City. The city’s housing shortage is, in part, due to an influx of migrants, especially those who are bringing their families.
Not only is housing in short supply but so are available seats in public schools. Twenty thousand children joined the school system in August, and 100,000 have joined the school system in general since last spring, according to National Public Radio. These students require extra resources due to their language barriers.
At a Sept. 6 press conference, the New York Department of Education announced it had hired 188 English as a New Language teachers for this school year with 140 other candidates in the works. However, that is a small number considering how many migrant students have entered the school system this year.
Last month, Adams visited Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico to spread the message that New York is running out of space. Migrants are now living in emergency shelters, and due to the lack of funding and a place to live, some have even had to move into gymnasiums and tents installed in parking lots. These accommodations are challenging for migrants and can be problematic for local residents.
According to Spectrum News, as of August, there were about 60,000 migrants in the city’s care waiting for asylum and a work permit, which they cannot attain until they have waited six months to fill out an application. As they wait to work legally, they still go out and look for jobs, but without working papers, few will hire them.
For migrants to succeed, the city must provide adequate resources, but that cannot be done when busloads of up to 600 migrants are arriving each day, a number reported by ABC News.
It is unfair for New York City to bear the brunt of the migrant crisis, and to put it plainly, the city just cannot accommodate any more migrants.
