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Around 100,000 refugees came to New York. The city is overwhelmed. Criticism is now also coming from Democrats.
“This will destroy New York City.” Mayor Eric Adams doesn’t skimp on dramatic words. New York has a long tradition as a city of immigrants – but the mayor did not imagine the way the situation is developing in New York. “Sometimes they come from Venezuela, then Ecuador, then West Africa, then they are Russian-speaking refugees. People come to us from all over the world who come to New York City via the southern border from Mexico.”
Legend:
Because the city of New York couldn’t find enough accommodation for migrants, it set up several huge tents on Randalls Island off Manhattan. Because of the tents, some of the sports fields cannot currently be used.
SRF
On Randalls Island off Manhattan, huge tents are being set up on sports fields with thousands of beds for migrants. The loungers are close together, hundreds in a tent.
The Democratic mayor and the Republican demand
100,000 refugees came to the city within just over a year. In New York, the law guarantees everyone a place to sleep. But the city is overwhelmed. In the middle of Manhattan, refugees temporarily camped in front of a former hotel that was converted into asylum accommodation. Migrants are also accommodated in other places, but suitable housing is difficult to find in New York City.
Legend:
At the beginning of August, refugees camped in front of the former Hotel Roosevelt in downtown New York.
REUTERS/Mike Segar
Some Democrats, like Mayor Adams, are now voicing a key Republican demand: to stop the influx at the US southern border with Mexico.
Meanwhile, conservatives are organizing protests in New York. “The migrants cannot simply live on our tax money. Billions are being spent on them without a plan,” says a protester in Brooklyn.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been allowing migrants to be transported to New York on buses for a year now. Although the people transported by Abbott contribute to the congestion in New York, they do not make up the majority. Even without the Texas governor’s intervention, many refugees come to the left-liberal city. It is more of a symbolic protest.
Mayor Adams is trying to send some of the migrants to districts outside the city in New York state. But there is resistance in some suburbs.
So the Republicans are shifting responsibility to the Democrats, the mayor to the governor of New York, and the mayor to the Biden administration. “We call on the White House: Let the migrants work! “In the meantime, we need money and locations from the federal government to cover the massive costs of housing tens of thousands of people,” says Governor Kathy Hochul.
Legend:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling on the Biden administration to slow the influx of refugees at the US southern border. He is a Democrat, but he is expressing a core demand of the Republicans.
Sceneshot CBS
President Biden has long been under pressure from his political opponent, the Republicans, over migration. But now there is also criticism from representatives of his own party. Even democratic cities like Chicago, Washington and especially New York are finding themselves overwhelmed by the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees.
However, President Biden rarely comments on the subject of migration. The USA needs a fundamental reform of the immigration system, but a compromise in Congress is not in sight.
Legend:
By law, New York promises everyone a place to sleep. Many refugees probably come to New York because of the social laws and because they have family or friends here.
SRF
New York’s mayor has already announced massive rounds of austerity because of the refugees. The many refugees are explosive for the Democrats. Some candidates for the House of Representatives in competitive districts fear losing because of this and are calling on the White House to act. And for President Biden, the critics within his party are also extremely unfavorable for his election campaign.