At an August 9 press conference, New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams pleaded for federal financial aid for the city’s influx of new migrants.[1]
For fiscal 2023 the City spent $1.45 billion on shelter services for migrants and this June approved $2.9 billion for same for fiscal 2024, but already knows that will not be enough. The Mayor said it now looks like it will require $5 billion because the City had failed to include the new migrants now coming under the new Biden Administration’s asylum and immigration rules [2] and a 1996 federal law that requires asylum seekers to wait five months in the U.S. before applying for work permits.
Massachusetts is experiencing the same problem. Its Governor, Maura Healey, this week declared, “a state of emergency exists in Massachusetts due to rapidly rising numbers of migrant families arriving in . . . [the state] in need of shelter and services and a severe lack of shelter availability in the state.” She also denounced “a federal crisis of inaction” and asked for faster work authorizations. [3]
============================
[1] Editorial, The Blue State Migrant Crisis, W.S.J. (Aug. 9, 2023).
[2] E.g., Biden Administration’s New Restrictions on U.S. Asylum Law Being Challenged in Federal Courts, dwkcommentareis.com (Aug. 6, 2023).
[3] Press Release, Governor Healey Declares State of Emergency, Calls for Support for Newly Arriving Migrant Families, Mass. Govt (Aug. 8, 2023).
