New York City Mayor Eric Adams has launched the city’s first asylum seeker arrival center as hundreds of Caribbean and other asylum seekers continue to arrive there daily.
Adams also announced the placement of what will be the city’s ninth Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centre.
Officials say many of the asylum seekers come from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela and Adams said the Roosevelt Hotel, which has been closed for nearly three years, will host the arrival center and deliver on a key commitment to provide a centralized intake center for all arriving asylum seekers and providing migrants with access to a range of legal, medical, and re-connection services.
The Roosevelt Hotel will open up 175 rooms for children and families until it is scaled to about 850 rooms. An additional 100 to 150 rooms will be held for asylum seekers in transition to other locations.
With the number of asylum seekers arriving in New York City expected to rapidly accelerate as Title 42 has now been lifted, Adams also renewed calls to the state and federal government for additional support as the city faces this crisis.
“With the opening of yet another humanitarian relief center, we continue to ask for our federal and state partners for a real decompression strategy and hope to open and operate temporary shelters across the state and nation, as New York City has reached its capacity.
“New York City has now cared for more than 65,000 asylum seekers — already opening up over 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers in addition to this one to manage this national crisis.
“While this new arrival center and humanitarian relief center will create hundreds of good-paying, union jobs and provide the infrastructure to help asylum seekers reach their final destination, without federal or state assistance, we will be unable to continue treating new arrivals and those already here with the dignity and care that they deserve,” he added.
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said with the expiration of Title 42, “we know that we may face an even larger number of individuals and families seeking asylum in New York City or passing through to their final destination.
“While we are responding to the immediate need, this is a time to, once again, call upon the state and federal government to do more to support the city’s efforts and share the burden of this humanitarian crisis.”
The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) urged Adams and other stakeholders to “start coordinating and planning to ensure the health and well-being of asylum seekers sent to the region” amid a judge’s issuance of a temporary restraining order blocking New York City from sending additional asylum seekers to the county.
There are currently 186 single adult men staying at two hotels in Orange County, who are allowed to stay there.
NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that every state and community have “the capacity to welcome people fleeing danger, if done right.
“NYC Mayor Eric Adams and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus need to start coordinating and planning to ensure the health and well-being of the asylum seekers sent to the region,” he said.
CMC/
