(NewsNation) — With busloads of migrants arriving in New York City, government officials are trying to figure out where to find them shelter.
The influx stems from a political battle between East Coast Democratic leaders and the Republican governor of Texas.
The parties disagree on border policies, but as crossings reach unprecedented level and strain resources in the Lone Star state, Gov. Greg Abbott says enough is enough. He’s loading migrants onto buses and sending them to New York City and Washington, D.C.
“They are finally getting a taste of what we’re having to deal with,” Abbott recently said on Fox News.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to do everything it can to aid the migrants.
“We are going to fulfill our moral and legal obligation to house everyone that enters New York City,” Adams has said. “That is what we have done. That is what we will continue to do.”
Bus after bus has now pulled into the Big Apple, and while Adams says the city will always welcome migrants, he’s asking for federal money to help with the estimated 4,000 people the city claims have already arrived.
The city’s homeless shelter system has been overwhelmed, raising the question of where migrants will be housed. It appears Adams may have found temporary homes in nearly a dozen of the city’s hotels, including at one luxury hotel near the heart of Times Square.
New reports suggest parts of the $400 a night Row NYC hotel could become a shelter for as many as 600 migrant families and homeless people, according to the New York Post.
It’s not the first housing crisis the city has faced. There are an estimated 50,000 people in some form of shelter, a number that increased since the start of the pandemic. The city turned to hotels to house thousands as the coronavirus spread.