NYC Mayor Calls on Biden to Declare State of Emergency Over Increase in Migrants

New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency in New York over the influx of migrants the city has received in the past year in an interview with CBS Mornings Tuesday.

“Even something as simple as calling a state of emergency, if the president does that it allows us to give resources,” said Adams.

Adams comments came within a broader discussion of the asylum documentation backlog that is preventing many recent migrants from being able to legally work. Only six months after an asylum application can a migrant receive work permits in America, though due to a severe backlog it can now take years.

“The precursor to sleep to enjoy the American dream is the right to work,” Adams said he would tell Biden. “Let them work.”

A White House spokesperson told CBS: “Only Congress can provide additional funding for these efforts, which this Administration has already requested.”

New York officials say the city has received 100,000 asylum seekers in the last year, due in part to the busloads of migrants sent by other states, and has seen its infrastructure strain as the city attempts to care for all of its new residents. 

"Our compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not. This is the budgetary reality we are facing if we don’t get the additional support we need," Adams said on Aug. 9. 

Housing and caring for the influx of migrants could cost the city $12 billion over the next three years, Adams has said.