Tent City Could Reopen As NYC Braces For Renewed Migrant Surge: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — An anticipated renewed surge of asylum seekers coming into New York City could force officials to reopen a controversial tent city, Mayor Eric Adams said.

Adams on Monday launched into the second day of dire warnings about the coming expiration of a key border policy that ultimately slowed the flow of migrants into the city before they could overwhelm shelters and services.

Roughly 1,000 more migrants likely will come into the city every week unless federal officials take steps to help, Adams said. He said the renewed migrant influx could prompt city officials to take steps like reopening a tent city on Randalls Island.

“Nothing is off the table when dealing with a crisis,” he said Monday.

New York City has seen roughly 31,000 asylum seekers — and counting — arrive over this year, largely on buses coming into Port Authority, officials said.

The influx threatened to stretch city’s shelters and services to the breaking point, and Adams declared the potential $1 billion situation a “state of emergency” in October.

But after the city controversially ramped up construction of a tent city — first in The Bronx, then in Randalls Island — to temporarily house some asylum seekers, the flow of migrants slowed to a trickle.

The change was President Joe Biden’s administration’s invoking Title 42 — a Trump-era policy that federal officials had used to restrict asylum seekers at the border from Venezuela, who formed the bulk of those arriving in New York City.

The influx of migrants slowed so much — to roughly 150 every week, Adams said — that city officials shuttered the barely used Randalls Island facility.

But that’s likely to change after a federal judge blocked the use of Title 42 at the border effective Wednesday.

Adams issued a statement Sunday in response that practically begged federal officials for help.

“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff, and space,” he said in the statement. “Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain. These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers. I’ll say it again — we need a plan, we need assistance, and we need it now.”