NYC sending migrants upstate amid influx

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan Friday top provide temporary housing upstate for asylum seekers already in the city’s care.

The program for as many as 300 single-adult men seeking asylum will last for up to four months.

It will launch with two hotels in Orange Lake and Orangeburg, with the potential to expand. 

The asylum seekers will receive the same city-funded services available at Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers.

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Staff at the hotels will connect residents with community-based organizations and faith groups.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends the Literacy Partners 2023 Gala at Cipriani South Street on May 1, 2023, in New York City.  (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Literacy Partners)

Now, the city is conducting outreach to asylum seekers already living in shelters and humanitarian relief centers before the hotels open in coming weeks. Transfers to the cities will be voluntary. 

The mayor’s office said that the hotels will help free additional space in New York City for the hundreds of asylum seekers continuing to arrive in the five boroughs every day, noting that Title 42 is lifting and that there is expected to be an even larger influx of arrivals after May 11.

From last spring, more than 60,800 asylum seekers have come through New York City and there are currently over 37,500 asylum seekers in the city’s care. 

A bus carrying asylum seekers arrives at Port Authority on May 3, 2023, in New York City.  (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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In addition, since the humanitarian crisis began, the city has opened 122 hotels as emergency shelters and eight as humanitarian relief centers. 

Adams, in a statement, once again called for state and federal assistance, including financial aid, a national decompression strategy, expedited work authorization and real immigration reform.

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks to family members of fallen NYPD Officers while attending the NYPD Memorial Day Ceremony where new names were added to the Memorial Wall located in the lobby of the headquarters.  (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)

“Despite calling on the federal government for a national decompression strategy since last year, and for a decompression strategy across the state, New York City has been left without the necessary support to manage this crisis. With a vacuum of leadership, we are now being forced to undertake our own decompression strategy,” Adams said in a statement. 

He said the program would help people to build a stable life in New York.

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“New York City continues to step up and handle this crisis, and this new program is an extension of our compassionate response, but these actions do not mean we still don’t need urgent action, including a national decompression strategy, financial resources, expedited work authorization and real immigration reform from Congress,” Adams added.

The mayor has faced criticism for the move already, with Republican officials saying the region lacks necessary services for the asylum seekers and advocates for the migrants calling it a “temporary fix.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.