NY Governor Orders Release of $1 Billion to Assist Arrival of Immigrants from Southern Border

New York Governor Kathy Hochul today ordered the release of $1 billion to help New York City and other towns where a massive new arrival of immigrants from the country’s southern border is expected as Title 42 expires.

In addition, he ordered the mobilization of 500 additional National Guard agents to join the 1,000 already deployed in logistical assistance tasks for immigrants, both at the main arrival station (Port Authority Terminal) and the shelters where they are housed.

The 1,000 million that Hochul will deliver will go mainly to accommodation costs (741 million), the deployment of agents (162 million), health care (137 million) and other concepts such as assistance for the disabled, legal advice, transportation or voluntary relocation of families.

The executive order seeks to distribute in a more agile way “the necessary resources to the municipalities that accept asylum seekers”, an indirect response to the counties in the north of the state -mainly run by Republicans- that have already been against accepting asylum seekers. a part of the immigrants, as requested by the mayor of New York, the democrat Eric Adams.

The mayor of New York announced on Friday that the city has received more than 60,000 immigrants since last August and, given the saturation situation – they occupy 120 hotels and several large shelters – has begun to send immigrants to hotels in Rockland counties and Orange, -the first ones on the outskirts of the city- where they will be for four months

Hochul recalled that he has already asked President Joe Biden for federal help, both financial and legal, and specifically “to shorten the periods until asylum seekers can work legally,” alluding to the bureaucratic difficulties that prevent them from getting a work permit (between one and two years) and they are often forced to work in the black.