New York City Mayor Travels to Latin America to Address Asylum Seekers

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he will travel to Latin America. He will do it to try to convince those who wish to emigrate to the United States not to request asylum in his city.

New York has received nearly 120,000 migrants in the last year, and hundreds continue to arrive daily in need of a place to live and work.

Adams plans to visit Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia during a four-day tour this week. “We want to offer an honest assessment of what we are experiencing here in this city,” the mayor said.

“We are at the limit”

“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean they’re going to stay in a five-star hotel. It doesn’t mean that just because they come here, they’re automatically going to be allowed to work,” Adams said.

The mayor has made several urgent calls for a change in federal immigration policy and for funds to help the city manage the arrival of migrants, which he says could cost the city $12 billion. dollars for renting hotel space, building new emergency shelters, and providing public assistance to asylum seekers.

The Latin American tour begins Wednesday in Mexico, where Adams will attend the North Capital Forum and meet with government officials. Later she will travel to Quito to hold more meetings, and then to Bogotá. He will finally visit the Darién region, a dangerous stretch of the route that many migrants cross on their way to the United States.

Saturated shelters

New York is also resisting a decades-old legal agreement that requires it to provide shelter to anyone who requests it. On Tuesday, the city asked a judge to allow the measure to be suspended during a state of emergency in which the shelter population is increasing rapidly.

City and state leaders in New York, Illinois and other parts of the United States have asked the federal government to make it easier for migrants to obtain work permits, which would allow them to pay for their own food and housing.

The Biden administration took a step toward meeting this requirement last month by granting Temporary Protected Status to some 472,000 Venezuelans who are in the United States, which will allow them to process work permits. Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have announced $38 million in new state funding to help connect migrants with legal services.

Chicago will also send a delegation to Mexico

However, to expedite the granting of work permits to migrants in general, a Congressional act would be necessary to shorten the mandatory six-month waiting period for work permits for asylum seekers who cross the border illegally. With divided control of Congress, such a law seems unlikely.

Chicago also plans to send a delegation to the Texas border with Mexico to meet with officials and non-governmental organizations and give immigrants a more realistic picture of what awaits them in Chicago.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff, said the trip to the Texas border will be used, in part, to warn migrants about Chicago winters.

“We want to control the number of people who come and stay in Chicago,” he said.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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The New York City Department of Homeless Services counted 3,892 homeless people on the streets on one night in February. The figure released this month outlines one of the social problems that Bill de Blasio’s administration has sought to address.