What’s the endgame for New York City’s migrant madness?
Mayor Eric Adams just booked the entirety of “the world’s tallest Holiday Inn” — that’s almost 500 rooms — to house some of the 44,000-and-counting migrants who’ve landed here.
The burn rate of tax bucks to pay for this is obscene: At full capacity, the inn contract alone will cost some $10.5 billion through May 2024. (No wonder Adams recently implied the sky’s the limit on the crisis’ ultimate cost to the city).
For skeptics who say migrants can’t possibly fill it to the brim for that long — why not?
The migrants keep coming across the southern border, thanks to our president’s wave-them-in policy, and his State of the Union speech gave no hint of plans to change it.
Dealing with the tens of thousands of asylum claims by the migrants in Gotham alone will likely take years. Will they remain 100% dependent on the city and state for handouts that whole time?
If they plan to work, it will take at least six months for any “asylum seeker” to get a permit, and the feds show no sign of expediting the process as Adams demands. If they are given permits, will the city stop paying the hotel bills? How long does the largesse last?
And if they are found not to qualify for asylum, will they be deported? Will our “sanctuary city” allow it?
Plus, the wave hasn’t stopped landing. The Holiday Inn site is the sixth mega-shelter the city’s set up. At this rate, tourists will soon have nowhere to stay except Airbnb.
Handing migrants bus tickets north toward Canadaalleviates part of the problem, but hardly enough.
The city’s migrant crisis is rapidly becoming migrant chaos. New Yorkers deserve at least a guess from their leaders on how it’s to end.