Cities away from border struggle to find room for migrants
- Migrant shelters in-border towns are filling up
- The issue is partly because migrants are arriving on buses from the border
- Some cities plan to use school gyms as temporary housing
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(NewsNation) — Local leaders across the country are searching for new solutions to what they’re calling a migrant crisis.
So-called sanctuary cities all have policies that welcome migrants and asylum-seekers with open arms, but those policies weren’t designed to receive thousands in a short period of time.
In New York City, officials are scrambling to find more room as shelter orders have been temporarily rolled back.
If the situation doesn’t improve, migrants may be housed on a facility on Riker’s Island — home to one of the most notorious jails in the country.
More than 60,000 migrants and asylum-seekers have arrived in New York City in the past year. Most arrived by bus from the southern border in Texas.
The city has already opened 140 emergency shelters and relief centers, which includes hotels.
The city is now looking at 400 additional locations to house more migrants. The mayor’s plan to bus people to neighboring Orange County and Rockland County hotels was blocked after leaders filed a lawsuit.
Another plan to house migrants in public school gymnasiums received pushback from parents who cited safety concerns.
“In the time that we’ve had 70,000 migrants in this city, we have not heard any issues related to security or safety,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynosa said.
In Buffalo, Vive Shelter, which has welcomed asylum-seekers from 91 countries over 30 years now is warning that it has reached capacity.
In Chicago, people are also challenging plans to use a high school as a temporary emergency shelter for migrants.
The plan calls for placing up to 500 migrants inside South Shore High School with police security.
But South Shore residents filed a lawsuit to obtain an emergency restraining order to block the plan.
In Denver, 1,300 migrants have arrived as of Monday. A new report revealed the surge could cost the city more than $40 million.
Back in New York, officials are considering a wide variety of solutions, from using tents to refurbishing shipping containers in order to house migrants. Plans are still in the works to bus migrants to different places around the state.
