NYC Mayor Eric Adams warns that emergency migrant shelters will open in 'every community' in the Big Apple and that residents should expect to see them 'without warning' as shelter capacity nears 100%

• e-mail

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told residents Tuesday that they will see migrant emergency shelters in 'every community' in the city, and they should expect to see them 'without warning.' 

Adams noted that every borough would be 'impacted' by the crisis during a news conference at Yankees Stadium in the Bronx.

'Every community is going to see asylum-seekers,' Adams said. 

'This is a citywide crisis and all of us are going to be impacted and Staten Island is going to be impacted like the other four boroughs,' he added.

The mayor has noted that the city's shelters are already near 100 percent capacity, with about 61,000 people in the system, 20,000 of which are children. 

Mayor Eric Adams said New Yorkers will see migrant emergency shelters in 'every community,' as nearly 2,000 asylum seekers from Latin America over the weekend

Adams declared a state of emergency over the migrant crisis, and has said the Big Apple needed $1 billion in federal funding to deal with the influx of people

Construction takes place of a new facility to house migrants on Randall's Island, New York. Migrants have been arriving in NYC for weeks after being bussed from Texas and other states

'As the emergency comes, we have to make these on-the-ground moves and make sure that we deal with the crisis that’s in front of us,' he said.

He also said he was having to play 'hardball,' because 'a lot of people have not really dealt with emergencies before.'

Adams declared a state of emergency over the crisis, and has said the Big Apple needed $1 billion in federal funding to deal with the influx of people.

The mayor took time to hit back at his critics, including 'specific elected officials on all levels of elected government.'

'So, all the calls that I’m getting from elected officials, all the calls I’m hearing from people of saying you know, "Please, not here" — that just can’t happen,' he said.

His statements come as nearly 2,000 asylum seekers from Latin America arrived in New York City over the weekend.

The recent uptick is on account of Republican governors in states like Texas and Arizona busing in the groups. The move is meant to criticize democratic mayors and governors over their immigration policies.

The mayor has been criticized in the past by members of his own party and others over his unconventional ideas when it comes to housing the migrants. 

In the past, Adams has suggested renting out cruise ships to provide a temporary place for the migrants to reside until their situations are sorted. 

The city is currently in the process of building a 'tent city' on Randall's Island, which is expected. But even that, however, is shrouded in controversy. 

Less than one week ago, Adams announced that it would move from its originally- planned site near Orchard Beach in the Bronx to Randall's Island. 

The move came after pictures showed flooding at the open lot where hundreds of asylum seekers were expected to reside temporarily. 

Even before the structure was built, however, some politicians had reservations. 

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson had previously said of tent site that it was 'not the ideal location' and was prone to flooding.

An aerial photo taken with a drone shows workers assemble emergency tents to house some of the many migrants arriving to the city in the parking lot of Orchard Beach, with the skyline of Manhattan in the background

Set up just days ago, crews were seen taking down the large tents in a parking lot near Orchard Beach

Adams also said last week that the new location would provide better access to public transportation, another concern brought up by Gibson in September.

'This new location is less prone to flooding, is closer to public transportation, and will provide temporary respite to 500 asylum seekers,' Adams said in a statement.

'Moving to Randalls Island will be more cost efficient than staying at Orchard Beach and installing the needed flood-mitigation measures to make the site fully viable,' said mayoral representative Fabien Levy.

That location was slated to accommodate as many as 1,000 migrants at a time. 

The new location on Randalls Island will be a scaled down version of the original plan for Orchard Beach, according to officials familiar with the site.

'This has the ability to scale if needed, but we're going to start out with 500,' Levy told the Daily News.

Previous estimates placed the bigger Orchard Beach site's cost at around $150 million, but no word has been provided on how that total will change due to the move.

Outside of the 'tent city' idea, some local Council members have suggested that a better plan for housing migrants temporarily would be to put them in hotels.  

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams recently released a list of 10 local hotels she said could work if the plan were to be considered, stating that the locations have thousands of rooms available. 

Mayor Adams said during Monday's parade that he is considering her idea. He called on the Biden administration to crackdown on the border crisis as he declares a state of emergency in the Big Apple. 

Adams condemned the busing programs spearheaded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, which has brought about 17,000 migrants to the Big Apple. 

The mayor said about five to six busses are arriving every day since September, with nine buses arriving yesterday and eight on Friday. 

Since April, New York has set up 42 emergency shelters, enrolled 5,500 children in public school and tried to help the asylum seekers connect with family and resources. 

But Adams warned that the city could ultimately see 100,000 new migrants arrive by the end of the year, which will take its toll on New York's budget. 

'We expect to spend at least $1billion by the end of the fiscal year on this crisis, all because we have a functional, a compassionate system,' Adams said. 

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, was criticized by members of both his own party and those on the other side of the aisle for his migrant tent proposal

NYC Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency as he expects the city to spend $1billion on migrants being bused from the US-Mexico border

It comes as the mayor scrapped plans to house migrants inside a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship in State Island because it was too expensive and the city is seeking a 'cheaper option.'  

The mayor called on the federal government to tighten border control, provide funds to cities overburdened by the influx of migrants, and to get other cities to accept the immigrants. 

'We need a realistic decompression strategy at the border that will slow the outflow of asylum seekers. Adams said. 'We need a coordinated effort to move asylum seekers to other cities in this country to ensure everyone is doing their part.'

The mayor noted that the city's shelters were already near 100 percent capacity, with about 61,000 people in the system, 20,000 of which are children.

'Although our compassion is limitless, our resources are not,' Adams said. 'This is unsustainable.'

Adams appealed to hotels and nonprofits for temporary housing of the new migrants, and urged the private sector for donations to help the strained city.

'Unless we take immediate action that [Randall's Island] center will be full in days,' the Adams warned. 'And we will have to open another, and another, and another, even as winter arrives.'

Previously, Adams and his team were close to closing a deal with Norwegian Cruise Lines to dock one of their ships off Staten Island, but it fell through because NCL was charging too much, The New York Post reported.

Migrants await their free bus rides north at El Paso's 'welcome center'. Many of the new arrivals have fled flawed leftist regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua

The city moved its migrant problem to a processing facility on the edge of town. DailyMail.com witnesses lines of immigrants – mostly young men, but also many families – waiting to board buses for the next stage of their journey 

Downtown El Paso has in recent weeks witnessed chaotic scenes of migrants sleeping on the streets, after the surge of new arrivals overwhelmed the area's federal-run processing facilities

'They're probably least likely because we got better deals,' City Hall chief of staff Frank Carone told the Post.

Carone noted that deals were still being discussed with Carnival Cruise Line and the Estonian company Tallink & Silja, which has ships in the Ukraine housing refugees.

Adams also claimed that if officials in Texas and Arizona, where the majority of migrants are being bussed from, had first reached out to New York to coordinate a plan, then the city would've been able to allocate a budget to help the migrants.

'But we didn't get the support and information we asked for, and now, New York City is being forced to bare far more than its share of this national crisis.'

'Our right to shelter laws, our social services, and our values are being exploited by others for political gain,' the mayor added, criticizing the current busing program.

Adam's speech served as a condemnation of the border crisis across-party lines, as it was revealed that Democrat-led El Paso was sending more than twice as many migrants as Abbott.

El Paso, which sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico, has bused roughly 7,000 migrants to New York City since late August and sent more than 1,800 to Chicago, a city-run effort that far exceeds the more ad-hoc transportation of the past.

Abbott has bused more than 3,000 migrants to New York City and more than 900 to Chicago as part of a high-profile campaign to put a spotlight on the record crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas and Arizona combined have also bused over 10,000 migrants to Washington, D.C.

However, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, said the city's program is 'completely different' than the other busing efforts and that they seek to 'treat people with respect.'

The city's busing effort has received less attention than Abbott's program, who is seeking a third term in Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Migrants wait outside a New York City church on Sunday, October 9. The church held a welcoming even which included food giveaways and other services 

But unlike previous speeches where Adams went directly after Abbott, the Democrat mayor did not mention political parties on Friday, instead referring to the border states as a whole.

New York City mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart previously said that while El Paso does coordinate with the city to some degree, New York is not told how many migrants are on board.

El Paso's busing policy is not wholly popular among its own officials.

Victor Manjarrez, a former CBP chief for the region who now heads a department at The University of Texas at El Paso, says Democrats and Republicans were playing a game of 'political theater'.

By busing migrants north, El Paso officials were 'doing the same thing' as governors Abbott and Ducey, only 'it's just not getting the same type of attention,' Manjarrez told DailyMail.com.

Others say the migrant surge has overstretched a city of nearly 700,000 and that while FEMA has reimbursed some of the costs, there is no guarantee the agency will continue to pay. City officials warn that services could be cut.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus also condemned the busing policies by Democrats and Republicans alike.

The border chief told the Los Angeles Times that the widely publicized busing programs have now become a beacon for more migrants to flood the border seeking to be bused to other parts of the country.

'It's safe to say what's going on is a pull factor, which is somewhat ironic given the criticism from some of these same governors involved in this about various pull factors that they claim already exist,' Magnus said about Abbott, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.