Mayor Eric Adams Won’t Choose ‘New Arrivals Over Current New Yorkers’ As Title 42’s End Nears

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the expiration of Title 42 may force him to cut public services as more than 1,000 migrants are excepted to arrive in the Big Apple every week.

According to Fox News, the city’s annual “State of the City’s Economy and Finances” report was released last week by city Comptroller Brad Lander. It projected $1 billion per year in spending to cover housing, food, education, and other costs for migrants.

“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff, and space. Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain,” Adams said in a statement Sunday, according to Fox News. “These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers. I’ll say it again—we need a plan, we need assistance, and we need it now.”

Title 42 blocks migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. The restriction was put in place by the Trump administration in March 2020 to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The policy was extended by the Biden administration and was set to expire this week, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily paused the expiration of Title 42, granting an 11th-hour request made by more than a dozen Republican-led states.

States on the border have made several moves to bring negative attention to the border crisis. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made headlines earlier this year when he began sending busloads of migrants to New York and Chicago. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent migrants by plane to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this year and outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has been placing shipping containers with barbed wire on top across the Arizona-Mexico border, which the Biden administration has sued him over.

In addition to Mexican citizens trying to get into the United States, residents from Guatemala and Honduras have also been seeking asylum after walking thousands of miles.