The number of migrants who enter New York City per week has slowed to fewer than 1,000 for the first time since 2022, according to Mayor Eric Adams Office, as reported by Gothamist.
This decline comes as President Joe Biden’s administration enforces widespread new restrictions on people applying for asylum along the US-Mexico border, including blocking migrants who illegally cross the border from receiving asylum, enforcing stricter screening processes, and more.
Just over 900 new migrants registered with the city in the first week of July, and approximately 800 did in each of the three following weeks, data provided by City Hall to Gothamist shows. Several months earlier in mid-February, twice as many newcomers, over 1,600 in one week, were registered for shelter, per the data.
This pattern of fewer asylum seekers entering also comes as the Adams administration instates stricter limits on shelter stays for migrants. At a press briefing last week, mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia also attributed the decline of new arrivals to the mayor’s “crackdown on out-of-state bus companies” hired to transport migrants to the city, including many sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.
The New York State Supreme Court ruled against Adams’ attempt to block migrant buses from arriving in New York City on Monday. This occurs months after the mayor requested a preliminary injunction barring Texas-based bus companies from transporting asylum seekers as part of a lawsuit he filed against 17 charter bus companies that had transported migrants to New York City back in January.
The New York Civil Liberties Union argued the mayor’s move was unconstitutional. The court agreed and rejected the mayor’s request.
Yet, the mayor’s office said the lawsuit did help temporarily reduce the number of buses of asylum seekers arriving in the city.
Adams also signed an executive order in December that required the companies to provide 32 hours’ notice before migrant buses arrived in the city, and restricted when buses could arrive.
Local immigrant advocates have criticized Adams’ shelter limits for migrants and Biden’s latest asylum restrictions. The New York City Council is now considering a bill that would end the shelter limits, and the ACLU has since sued the Biden administration over the executive order, calling it an “anti-asylum rule.”
