Migrant crisis fallout: NYC Mayor Eric Adams orders 5% budget cuts from all city agencies
The scene outside of the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue and East 45th Street where hundreds of migrants slept on the sidewalks while waiting for a place to stay on Aug. 2. Credit: John Roca
Mayor Eric Adams has ordered 5% budget cuts from all New York City agencies to help offset the billions of dollars in costs to shelter, feed and otherwise care for the unending influx of foreign migrants.
He also called for two more rounds of 5% cuts next year — meaning the total cuts could be closer to 15% in all.
The announcement, made in a news release Saturday, comes days after Adams warned that the migrant influx crisis — 10,000 migrants a month, over half of whom are in the city's care — would "destroy New York City."
Adams said the cuts can be avoided if the state and federal governments send more money to the city to handle the influx, but a small fraction of the projected $12 billion cost by next fiscal year has been provided. Cuts could also be held off if the economy does better, and the city gets more tax revenue, he said.
He said in the announcement: "The die is not yet cast."
"While our compassion is limitless, our resources are not. This is a sobering fact, and that’s why today’s decision was not made lightly,” he said.
New York City's budget this year is $107 billion and funds police, fire, parks, youth programs, sanitation and much more. The city is legally required to balance its budget, under rules enacted after the city almost went bankrupt in the 1970s.
Adams' announcement Saturday didn't give specifics of what should be cut, but he promised no layoffs.
"The administration will seek to minimize disruption to programs and services," the statement said.
“The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum-seekers will feel these potential cuts — and they will hurt," Adams said in remarks he released on YouTube.
Since April 2022, more than 110,000 migrants have arrived in the city, and the majority are living in city-funded shelters, hotel rooms or other accommodations.
Under the city’s unique-in-the-nation and decades-old right to shelter mandate, anyone who is in need must be provided a bed and other services. As a self-declared sanctuary city, the local government is also legally prohibited by local law from cooperating with federal immigration enforcers.
About 41% of the migrants are from Venezuela, 18% from Ecuador, 13% from Colombia, 5% from Peru, 4% from Mauritania, 3% from Russia, 2% from Senegal, 2% from Nicaragua, 1% each from Honduras and Turkey, and the rest from elsewhere, according to figures provided this summer from Adams’ office.
The city has opened over 200 locations to house migrants, including pitching tents in a parking lot of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center near the Queens-Nassau border.
Adams has sought, almost entirely unsuccessfully, to relocate migrants elsewhere in the state, including on Long Island. Several municipalities, such as Riverhead and Suffolk County, have passed emergency orders prohibiting such relocations.
As the crisis has intensified, Adams has increasingly blamed President Joe Biden’s policies and demanded federal help.
Several thousand out of the total 110,000 are known to have filed for asylum as of last month, according to figures from Adams’ office. Newsday reported in June that among those who do file, most are unlikely to be granted asylum, but an unknown number are likely to stay in the country illegally.
Mayor Eric Adams has ordered 5% budget cuts from all New York City agencies to help offset the billions of dollars in costs to shelter, feed and otherwise care for the unending influx of foreign migrants.
He also called for two more rounds of 5% cuts next year — meaning the total cuts could be closer to 15% in all.
The announcement, made in a news release Saturday, comes days after Adams warned that the migrant influx crisis — 10,000 migrants a month, over half of whom are in the city's care — would "destroy New York City."
Adams said the cuts can be avoided if the state and federal governments send more money to the city to handle the influx, but a small fraction of the projected $12 billion cost by next fiscal year has been provided. Cuts could also be held off if the economy does better, and the city gets more tax revenue, he said.
He said in the announcement: "The die is not yet cast."
"While our compassion is limitless, our resources are not. This is a sobering fact, and that’s why today’s decision was not made lightly,” he said.
New York City's budget this year is $107 billion and funds police, fire, parks, youth programs, sanitation and much more. The city is legally required to balance its budget, under rules enacted after the city almost went bankrupt in the 1970s.
Adams' announcement Saturday didn't give specifics of what should be cut, but he promised no layoffs.
"The administration will seek to minimize disruption to programs and services," the statement said.
“The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum-seekers will feel these potential cuts — and they will hurt," Adams said in remarks he released on YouTube.
Since April 2022, more than 110,000 migrants have arrived in the city, and the majority are living in city-funded shelters, hotel rooms or other accommodations.
Under the city’s unique-in-the-nation and decades-old right to shelter mandate, anyone who is in need must be provided a bed and other services. As a self-declared sanctuary city, the local government is also legally prohibited by local law from cooperating with federal immigration enforcers.
About 41% of the migrants are from Venezuela, 18% from Ecuador, 13% from Colombia, 5% from Peru, 4% from Mauritania, 3% from Russia, 2% from Senegal, 2% from Nicaragua, 1% each from Honduras and Turkey, and the rest from elsewhere, according to figures provided this summer from Adams’ office.
The city has opened over 200 locations to house migrants, including pitching tents in a parking lot of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center near the Queens-Nassau border.
Adams has sought, almost entirely unsuccessfully, to relocate migrants elsewhere in the state, including on Long Island. Several municipalities, such as Riverhead and Suffolk County, have passed emergency orders prohibiting such relocations.
As the crisis has intensified, Adams has increasingly blamed President Joe Biden’s policies and demanded federal help.
Several thousand out of the total 110,000 are known to have filed for asylum as of last month, according to figures from Adams’ office. Newsday reported in June that among those who do file, most are unlikely to be granted asylum, but an unknown number are likely to stay in the country illegally.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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