Immigration
New NYC agency to address migration crisis, open 24-hour welcome center
The new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations will help migrants find “food and a safe place to sleep,” as well as file the appropriate paperwork needed to get work permits
March 9, 2023 8:35am
Updated: March 9, 2023 6:41pm
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Tuesday the launch of a new government agency to help address the large influx of migrants arriving at the city and potentially move them to other states.
The new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations will help migrants find “food and a safe place to sleep,” as well as file the appropriate paperwork needed to get work permits, the mayor said. Additionally, it will be in charge of opening a 24-hour processing center to welcome the arriving migrants in a “centralized” location within the city.
“Our goal is to help them to become self-sufficient as soon as possible. That is the No. 1 goal,” he said during a news conference at City Hall.
“No matter where I go, I’m hearing the same thing from the asylum seekers: ‘We don’t want to be a burden. We want to work. We want to be part of all this, what we heard about being in this country,” Adams added.
Adams, however, did not specify where the agency will be located, who would run it, or how much it would cost.
The mayor also said he is holding talks with mayors from other cities to relocate several migrants and “move towards long-term housing and resettlement, including resettlement to pre-vetted cities and municipalities that welcome asylum seekers.”
“There are many cities within the state and across the country that are saying they want to help. We want to create the pathway to do that,” he said, without disclosing which cities might be interested in receiving the migrants.
Since last spring, more than 50,000 migrants have arrived in the Big Apple. The city has supported a great majority of them by providing housing, food, and other services. However, city officials have claimed that the large, unprecedented number of migrants is costing the city around $4.6 million a day.
“The quicker we can process people out of the system, the better off New York taxpayers will be. $4.6 million a day is more than the Department of Sanitation spends,” said City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli.
