Chicago and NYC ask Texas to stop sending migrants north as crisis continues

As Texas plans to start busing migrants out of the state to other cities, the mayors of Chicago and New York City claim that they do not have enough resources to handle any more migrants. 

On Sunday due to the immigration crisis, the City of El Paso, Texas, announced a state of emergency in preparation for an influx of migrants after the end of the COVID-19 immigration policy Title 42 on May 11. The city is expecting between 12,000 and 18,000 migrants to attempt to cross the border beginning on May 12, in addition to the thousands of people already in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. 

To help ease the strain caused by the migrants in the city, El Paso is considering moving undocumented migrants to other cities around the nation. Last fall, the city sent around 10,713 migrants to New York City and 3,259 to Chicago, according to city data. 

“The possibility of doing those transports again that we saw in September, October is very much a reality,” El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said on Sunday.

“[Sending the buses] is our last move, because we’d rather successfully help [migrants] get on their way on their own … but that is an option,” D’Agostino added.

Throughout the past week, Texas sent more than 200 migrants a day to Chicago. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded by pleading with Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to stop sending buses of migrants to the city, which she claims is feeling the strain of the incoming migrants and is out of resources to accommodate them. 

“We are completely tapped out. We have no more space, no more resources … We’ve been seeing over the last week, two to three weeks, 200-plus people coming to Chicago every single day,” Lightfoot said. 

According to estimates, Chicago needs more than $20 million a month to support the influx of migrants, many of which are gathered in the city’s parks or on the floors of police stations. 

Abbott replied to Lightfoot with a letter of his own, telling the Chicago mayor to ask President Biden for help with resources. 

"If you truly want to 'work together to find a real solution' to this border crisis gripping our nation, you must call on the Biden Administration to do its job by securing our border, repelling the illegal immigrants flooding into our communities,” Abbott said. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also accused Abbott of playing politics with “people’s lives” by resuming the busing of migrants to his city. He called the action “morally bankrupt and devoid of any concern for the well-being of asylum seekers.”

New York City has been struggling to accommodate the incoming migrants, which as of last Sunday reached 59,400. Adams has been asking for federal assistance to support the city’s efforts. 

"Despite Abbott’s inhumane actions, New York City will continue to do all it can to handle this influx, but this crisis is more than one city can handle," Adams said.