NEW YORK — The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, questioned for the first time that migrants who have arrived in the city in recent months have the right to a roof in public shelters, statements that this Wednesday have generated immediate criticism from activists and legal groups.
“Anyone in need of shelter, including asylum seekers, has the right to receive it, as prescribed by multiple long-standing court orders and local law,” the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the People said in a joint statement. homeless.
New York is legally required to provide shelter to anyone, including immigrants, and since last spring at least 42,000 people have arrived on their own or sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has tried to use that peculiarity. New York law enforcement to get rid of emigrants in Texas.
Some 30,000 of the arrivals have been housed in public shelters or in hotels paid for by the city, which has caused a humanitarian and economic crisis.
The controversial words were pronounced by Adams in an interview with WABC: “We have a moral and legal obligation to comply with that (give shelter),” he said, but he immediately qualified when speaking of the migrants.
“We do not believe that asylum seekers fit completely into this debate on the right to refuge,” the mayor also said, later criticized by the NGOs.
This obligation – the NGOs said in their joint statement – is not a responsibility that the mayor can decide to evade, “and he knows it”.
“We once again call on the City Council to implement the solutions we proposed last year,” which they believe would reduce the number of people in shelters.
The mayor also indicated in another interview (MSNBC) that he plans to add four hotels to the extensive list of facilities where he houses immigrants, while he awaits the financial aid he requested from federal authorities.
“It is simply unfair that cities bear the burden of a national problem. We are going to open four more hotels,” he said.
The city signed a six-month contract for 275 million dollars with the Hotel Association to house up to 5,000 migrants -55,000 dollars for each one- and the agreement includes separating entire hotels for this population, as recently published by the New York Post.
The mayor has said that a long-term solution is aborted immigration reform, but “what’s the short-term plan?” he wondered.
