The Biden administration's border policies have stopped the flow of Latin American asylum seekers coming to New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday. Migrants have been coming to New York by the thousands, many sent by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, pushing the shelter system to its breaking point in what Adams has called a potentially $1 billion "humanitarian crisis," Politico reports. Adams declared a state of emergency this month and asked federal government to ease the flow. Last week, the Biden administration announced beefed-up checkpoints and the creation of a streamlined asylum process for Venezuelans, who make up a large portion of the arriving migrants. Under the new policy, Venezuelan asylees who enter the U.S. illegally will be returned to Mexico. “I had to tell New Yorkers what we were dealing with, and what I needed from the federal government — and the president responded,” Adams said. “They did a decompression strategy.”
Each day, around 10 buses were arriving daily in New York before the Biden border-policy change. Now, just two coaches have pulled up to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in the last two days. The slowing arrivals come just as the city opens a pair of intake centers, one for families in a midtown hotel and another for adult men in a tent complex on Randall's Island. This cost the city at least $650,000 after an initial site proved too flood-prone and the operation had to be moved. Officials say relocation of the facility will save money because the new spot doesn't require flood mitigation. On Thursday, the second day the facility was open, staffers and members of the National Guard milled about the fenced-off site, which was largely devoid of asylum seekers. The center has nearly 1,000 beds, but only two people were admitted on its first day, Wednesday.