As more asylum seekers continue to arrive by bus, New York City struggles to help them all
NEW YORK -- About 100 more asylum seekers arrived in the city on Wednesday, bused in again by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
City leaders are now grappling with how to find adequate resources to help them all.
They were exhausted and dehydrated. Some were confused. One was pregnant and there were many young children. They were given a brief moment to smile after a taxing two-day journey.
"It's an opportunity for me to do what the parents haven't been able to do for so long. They're here to protect the children, but now they're in a new country and they, themselves, are children," said Power Malu of the group Artists Athletes Activists.
Two more buses of asylum seekers from Laredo, Texas, arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal carrying several dozen people from Venezuela looking for help.
"You can see it in their faces. They're exhausted, they're scared," said Ilze Thielmann, director of Team TLC NYC. "People arrive dehydrated. We had a couple of people arrive with diabetes who hadn't had insulin in a few days. We had to take them to the hospital."
Manuel Castro, the city's immigration commissioner, greeted each one personally, even as he struggles to figure out how to help them all.
"We have been welcoming 200-300 people a day for quite some time and with these buses restarting we can expect over 1,000 people a day, which is incredibly difficult for us because we have been doing this for more than a year," Castro said. "So far, the city has invested $1 billion in this crisis, and we've only received $8 million from the federal government."
The new arrivals arrived as immigration officials brace for a surge at the Mexico border when Title 42 expires next week. The pandemic-era policy allowed officials to deny entry into the U.S. and return migrants to Mexico almost immediately.
Commissioner Castro says New York City has taken in roughly 60,000 asylum seekers since last spring, and converted upwards of 120 hotels into emergency shelters.
Now, he fears the expiration of Title 42 could compound the strain on the city's already crippled resources.
"If people, especially families with children, end up sleeping on the street, which we have been working to avoid, this will be on the federal government because they have not intervened at the border and provided sufficient support to cities that have been helping these migrants," Castro said.
READ MORE: Mayor Eric Adams calls on Biden administration to make asylum seekers eligible for work
On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams once again blasted Abbott for sending busloads of migrants to Democratic cities like New York, accusing him of using humans as political pawns.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden announced he was sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help control what is expected to be a massive influx of migrants seeking asylum when Title 42 expires.
The asylum seekers who arrived in the city on Wednesday were to be immediately assisted with basic needs like food, clothing and shelter. Castro told CBS2 half of the people who arrived were children under the age of 10.
The city estimates by the end of 2024, it will have spent $4.3 billion on services for asylum seekers.
