The Mayor of New York, in an unprecedented step, asked the Supreme Court of that state to suspend an old rule that dates back to the 1980s and that forces the city to provide housing to thousands of immigrants seeking refuge.
If successful, the city would stop providing shelter to single male immigrants, but would continue to serve family units seeking an opportunity to obtain protection from the United States federal government through asylum.
The request occurs in the midst of an acute crisis unleashed by the arrival of immigrants in the last two years in search of asylum, processes that in most cases will take years to be resolved by the immigration courts that find themselves with a traffic jam that exceeds 2.5 million cases.
What the New York City letter says
In the letter sent to Judge Edwards, New York City lawyers detail that they initially requested permission to ask for help in May with the aim of addressing the crisis. And that, while the series of discussions and conversations since then “have been productive,” the current circumstances “require that the city request permission to present a motion for urgent relief.”
“The circumstances of this emergency have worsened significantly since May,” the lawyers argue. And they warn that between May and July the city “provided an overview of the unprecedented and extraordinarily complex challenges posed by the historic and enormous influx of people into the City’s care over the past eighteen months.”
“This influx has increased the population under the city’s care from approximately 45,000 on April 1, 2022 to more than 116,700 on October 1, 2023, an increase of 159%,” it warns.
The correspondence also states that the explosive rate of entry or arrival of new immigrants into the care of the city “shows no signs of slowing down.” On the contrary, recent reports of overwhelmed ports of entry along the southern border “foreshadow the possible intensification of the current crisis,” he adds.
And he warns that, in fact, “last week, the State of Texas resumed sending several buses to the city each day and, until now, has not been willing to respond to the city’s requests for information on specific numbers of buses. buses that are en route, the time of their expected arrival and the family composition of the people on the buses.”
What Mayor Adams says
After sending the letter to Judge Edwards on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams declared that the Callahan Agreement or Decree, the rule that seeks to temporarily suspend the current crisis, “was never intended to apply to extraordinary circumstances.” that the city faces today.”
New York City has opened 61 additional sites or shelters. “And with more than 122,700 asylum seekers having passed through our intake system since spring 2022 and projected costs of more than $12 billion over three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” he said. .
“We must be flexible to respond to this crisis effectively and continue to lead with the compassion and care that we have consistently shown to those who arrive here,” the councilor said.
Adams added that “to be very clear, the city is not seeking to get rid of the Callahan Act.” “We are simply asking that the city’s obligations be aligned with those of the rest of the state during states of emergency. For more than a year now, New York City has largely shouldered the burden of this national crisis alone.”
“We have spent more than $2 billion to date and expect to spend $5 billion by the end of this fiscal year (September 30) without significant and timely help from our state and federal partners. And throughout this crisis, not a single family with children has been forced to sleep on the street. But as we have said repeatedly, with more than 10,000 asylum seekers continuing to arrive each month, New York City cannot continue to do this alone,” she warned.
What the Callahan Decree says
In force for more than 40 years, the Callahan Decree initially spoke of “men” when stating that the city had the obligation to provide shelter and food to anyone who requested it as long as they met certain standards established by the state and needed temporary shelter for reasons physical, mental or social dysfunction.
The right to shelter was officially expanded to families in 2008 following an agreement between the city and state after city officials refused to accept that families could benefit from the Callahan Act.
The decree indicates that the city or attached cities will provide shelter in facilities operated in accordance with established standards as soon as possible.
The term “shelter facility” refers to buildings assigned by the city to be used as shelters.
The document also describes the minimum conditions that the facilities must have, beds where they sleep, sheets, pillows, cleaning supplies and entry and exit times, among others.
The city’s lawyers indicated in the letter to Judge Edwards that the daily number of single adults seeking refuge in New York is “at least 50% higher than the daily number of single adults seeking refuge before the state of emergency declared by Mayor Adams.”
They also indicated that, if the obligation is temporarily suspended, the city “simply will have the same obligations as all other jurisdictions throughout the state of New York” and greater “flexibility in its response to the current crisis.”
Christine Quinn, former City Council speaker and executive director of WIN, a network of women’s and children’s shelters, who was quoted in The New York Times, said the policy changes requested by City attorneys could also affect families with children. “It will take New York down a slippery slope that will undoubtedly endanger families with children,” she said.
2023-10-05 17:00:00
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