© Robert MillerThe city expects “2 buses [of migrants] today and 10-15 more expected in the next two days.”
In an email blast sent to City Council members and their staff, the Adams administration noted that New York City's shelter system was at capacity and stressed that it had reached out to Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Biden for help.
"Please be advised that due to the lifting of Title 42 later this week, the City is expecting a higher amount of asylum seeker buses beginning today with 2 buses today and 10-15 more expected in the next two days," City Hall said in the message obtained by The Post.
"We have diligently advocated for support from our Federal & State partners as we cannot continue to address this issue alone," it said.
City officials expect over 1,000 new arrivals each week once the pandemic-related immigration restriction ends Wednesday, Adams said in a statement released later on Sunday. The Trump-era order, known as Title 42, allowed border patrol to quickly expel migrants who entered the country illegally.
"We've already received more than 31,000 asylum seekers into our city, and currently have open 60 emergency shelters, four humanitarian relief centers, and two welcome centers," Hizzoner said in the statement.
"We have been told in no uncertain terms that, beginning today, we should expect an influx of busses coming from the border and that more than 1,000 additional asylum seekers will arrive in New York City every week."
Adams and his administration pinned blame on state and federal government for not providing the financial support and other resources the city needs to navigate the crisis.
"We need help from Washington," Adams, who declared a state of emergency over the migrant crush in October, pleaded Sunday evening before participating in a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony in Manhattan.
New York, a sanctuary city, has submitted a $1 billion funding request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse it for sheltering tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving from the southern border, according to data released last week.
"Our requests for assistance have been mostly ignored. And while the New York federal delegation has repeatedly advocated for funding to be sent back to New York City, many in Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — have refused to lift a finger," Adams said in the statement Sunday.
"This can't continue. With the expiration of Title 42 just days away, we need the federal government — both in the administration and in Congress — to share their plans to move asylum seekers to other cities, to allow asylum seekers to work, and to send aid to the cities that have borne the brunt of this crisis."
Some 31,000 migrants have been sent to New York since the spring, and the government has placed 21,400 of them into its overflowing shelter system, according to city data released last Monday. Additional buses of migrants arrived Sunday, Adams' spokesman Fabien Levy told The Post.
An "anxious" Zoom conference call was held among city officials about the pending situation last week as Adams publicly acknowledged he was worried about an influx Thursday, The Post previously reported.
The City Council has planned two days of hearings — on Monday and Tuesday — to address the crisis.
Local Democrats and Republicans alike panned Democratic-controlled DC for leaving New York in the lurch.
"The President's failure means that less money will go to our parks, schools, hospitals, and anything else you can imagine. A billion dollars is a lot of money," said City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
Added Council Member Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), "Is anyone in Washington listening? I have no idea what they are waiting for. Do we need to beg?"
"With the city's shelter system bursting at the seams, a looming financial crisis, and mass exodus of taxpayers, New Yorkers cannot absorb more asylum seekers," Queens Council Member Robert Holden, a Democrat, told The Post.
"We cannot and should not further burden taxpayers for the federal government's failure to handle this crisis. President Biden and the US Congress must resolve this problem at the border."
Then-President Donald Trump instituted Title 42 in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict immigrants who may have been infected with the coronavirus from coming into the US.
Under Title 42, law enforcement officials have removed 2.5 million migrants apprehended at the border, according to government statistics.
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid from Republican-led states to suspend a lower court's ruling in November that will allow the program to expire on Dec 21.
The Department of Homeland Security said last week the US was not ready "to handle the current volume of migration nor the increased volume we expect over the coming weeks and months."
The agency had previously estimated the southern border could see up to 18,000 additional migrants a day when the measure ended up from about 7,500 a day, according to the most recent count.
A surge of migrants at the El Paso crossing leading up to the end of the measure had already led the border city to declare a state of emergency Saturday, as asylum seekers were left to fend for themselves on the streets as shelters were overrun.
DHS had asked Congress for $3 billion in funds to fight the surge, and the city's federal funding request, which came as it faced $2.9 billion budget deficit, was being reviewed by FEMA officials.
Nearly 30,000 refugees were granted asylum in 2020, before Title 42 was enacted. The number of migrants accepted in the next year plummeted to 11,840, according to DHS statistics.
Title 42 was unevenly enforced on asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and Mexico, because Mexico allows the US to send them back across the border.
The measure was less likely to be applied to Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans due to difficult diplomatic relations with their countries.
The Biden administration had applied the policy to single adults or families, not children traveling alone. Anyone who steps foot in the country to escape violence or political persecution is eligible to apply for asylum under US and international law.
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