New York City officials are thinking about flying illegal immigrants out of the Big Apple to Florida after officials in Texas bussed 11,000 border crossers to the sanctuary city, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.
Manuel Castro, NYC’s Commissioner of Immigration Affairs, said that most of the migrants are from Venezuela, and they want to go to the Sunshine State because it has a large community of Venezuelans.
“Many want to go to places like Florida where the largest community of Venezuelans live,” Castro told Fox News.
The influx of immigrants forced the city’s shelters to reject nearly 1,000 people, who ended up sleeping in the city streets.
Mayor Eric Adams told reporters earlier this week that NYC’s shelters are at a “breaking point.”
“In this new and unforeseen reality, where we expect thousands more to arrive every week going forward, the city’s system is nearing its breaking point,” Adams said in a statement Wednesday.
As a result, the city’s prior practices, which never contemplated the bussing of thousands of people into New York City, must be reassessed.
While some may want to use these extraordinary circumstances as an opportunity to play an unproductive game of gotcha, we remain focused on supporting each of these individuals and families who need our city’s help.
“We’re helping them get to their actual final destination. We’re doing our best,” Adams said. “All states and all cities have a role to play here, not just New York and Chicago and other places.”
New York City law requires the city to provide housing for anyone who requests it, with Castro adding that around 7,300 asylum seekers currently remain in the system.
The system has become so overwhelmed that city hall has had to contract hotel rooms to house the thousands coming into the city.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he chose NYC as an “ideal destination” for migrants because they “can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city.”
“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said.
The Texas border town of El Paso has seen a massive surge of illegal crossings in recent weeks that has overwhelmed Border Patrol facilities, and led to a humanitarian crisis where people are literally sleeping in the streets.
Democrat officials in El Paso have been sending their own buses of migrants to NYC, “and just approved up to a $2 million contract for 16 months to bus even more migrants out of town,” Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reported. The Democrat-led city is “also requesting federal reimbursement,” Melugin noted, adding: “El Paso, however, is not being criticized.”
NEW: The Democrat-led city of El Paso, TX has been sending its own buses of migrants to NYC, & the city says they are so overwhelmed, they can send up to 4 buses per day. Local CBP facilities & NGOs are overcrowded, so the federal gov is releasing migrants onto El Paso’s streets. pic.twitter.com/avsKQ6VWbi
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 12, 2022
The surge has come as a result of the Biden regime officially extending special protections for Venezuelans, known as Temporary Protected Status, that shield some of them from deportation.
In El Paso, hundreds of migrants have been sleeping on the streets without access to toilets or showers, and residents say that the “smell of human waste is overwhelming in the area.”
Migrants sleeping in downtown El Paso after being released due to over crowding. Many of them waiting for transportation out of El Paso. pic.twitter.com/PxmpFSxXbd
— Shelby Kapp (@KappKtsm) September 14, 2022
“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a scene that you would see in a third-world country, not in the streets of El Paso,” said Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas).
“Welcome to Biden’s America Last agenda.” Gonzalez wrote on Twitter.