According to the New York Post reported on the 13th, the Independent Budget Office (IBO) of New York City disclosed on Sunday that the city government is expected to spend at least $596 million a year in order to provide shelter, education, health care and legal aid to tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in recent months.
Immigrants arrive in New York Source: Visual China
The estimate is based on 17,500 migrants currently living in shelters or hotels in the city, and could be further increased.
George Sweeting, the office's acting director, wrote: "Assuming current family composition remains unchanged, an additional 10,000 asylum seekers would add about $246 million to such spending." Because the number of immigrants arriving in New York City is constantly changing, it is not possible to estimate the overall cost of providing a given city service. ”
In September, New York Mayor Eric Adams applied to U.S. President Joe Biden for a $500 million federal grant to address the immigration crisis, but Sweeting warned in a document accompanying the report that the federal government is unlikely to help.
Immigrants arrive in New York Source: Visual China
City Councilman Joe Borelli, one of the officials who asked the IBO to make the spending estimate, slammed the huge spend, saying the money could have been used to cover the lack of pensions for municipal workers.
"Incredibly, if we don't spend $600 million on the outcome of Biden's opening of the border, we have $600 million to prevent municipal retirees from losing their current health insurance plans." They all come from the same wallet. Borrell said.
Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul won re-election in the gubernatorial election, defeating Republican U.S. Representative and gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. Hochul said he had told Adams Mayor that the state "would do everything we could to help." She insisted during the campaign that it was the federal government's problem.
Her comments came a day after news broke that New York City would close the controversial and costly "tent city" on Randalls Island and relocate them to the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Randalls Island "Tent City" Source: Visual China
Mayor Adams had previously decided to allocate about $750,000 to build this "tent town," as well as another "tent town" at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, but the latter was earlier discontinued due to potential flooding risks and concerns from local communities. New York City Hall has consistently declined to disclose the costs of operating the two projects and dismantling its facilities and other associated expenses.
Since April, more than 17,000 asylum seekers, mainly from South America, have been transferred to New York City from the southern border region of the United States, where shelter centers are operating near full capacity and 42 hotels are used as emergency shelters, Xinhua reported. On current trends, the number of people admitted to New York City's asylum system will increase from the current more than 61,000 to more than 100,000 by next year.
New York Mayor Eric Adams announced on October 7 that New York City has entered a 30-day state of emergency starting today as the number of asylum-seeking migrants transferred from the southern border region in the past few months exceeds local capacity.
(Editor: ZLQ)