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Immigration

Migrant mother commits suicide in NYC shelter, says mayor

He blamed the Texas governor and other southern states who are busing migrants to Democrat-led cities.

September 19, 2022 1:39pm

Updated: September 19, 2022 5:38pm

A migrant woman who recently arrived in New York City committed suicide in a city shelter on Sunday, said Mayor Eric Adams.

"The thousands of asylum seekers we have seen arrive in our city came to this country seeking a better life," Adams said in a statement Monday.

"Sadly though, yesterday, an asylum seeker in one of our facilities took her own life. Our hearts break for this young woman and any loved ones she may have, and we, as a city, mourn her. This tragedy is a reminder that we have an obligation to do everything in our power to help those in need."

Adams also implored any city residents, including new migrant arrivals, suffering from anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges of any kind to call 888-NYC-WELL.

At a press conference, he said he could not go into detail about the woman, who he claimed was a mother, but placed the blame on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

"This is not a failure of those men and women, those city employees who have stayed up late at night, been at the bus station and navigated," Adams said.

"They are hardworking civil servants."

"The failure was the governors that sent people on a multi-day bus ride without proper food, without medical care, without the basic necessities. That's the failure. And we didn't fail in this city. This city is helping people,” he added.

"I think the governor of Texas and others are at fault for creating this man-made humanitarian crisis," he added.

A spokeswoman for the Coalition for the Homeless, the civil rights organization who won a 1979 settlement with the city that established a right to shelter and oversees the Department of Homeless Services, told the New York Post that it had not yet been informed of the woman’s death.

The mayor has been managing a huge influx of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border since last August, when the Biden administration reportedly began flying planes of them to an airport outside the city in the dead of night.

Adams had repeatedly accused Abbott of sending migrant buses to his city. Abbott has denied this, saying he had only sent them to Washington DC before the first arrived in the Big Apple on Aug. 5.