New York’s police officers will face overtime cuts – despite increased crime – as the city continues to struggle with the financial toll of the migrant crisis that has overwhelmed the Big Apple. Upwards of 110,000 migrants are littered across the New York area, with most arriving in the last 18 months from the southern border. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has warned the issue could cost taxpayers $12million and destroy the city.
Jacques Jiha (pictured), the city’s budget director, has told not just the police department, but fire, sanitation and corrections to drastically reduce overtime. ‘The mayor will … issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city’s four uniformed agencies (NYPD, FDNY, DOC/DSNY),’ he wrote in a Saturday memo. The move is part of city-wide budget reductions to help find money to pay for the swell of migrants. The situation might even lead city shelters to force migrant women and children to live in tents because of overcrowded facilities. No layoffs are being proposed by the city as part of attempts to keep budgets in check, according to the New York Post . There will, however, be a hiring freeze, save for departments like public health and safety. There is also, apparently, a reduction in overtime.
‘These agencies must submit a plan to reduce year-to-year OT spending,’ he added, saying that they must send City Hall monthly reports to track their progress toward the city’s goal for overtime reduction. The memo comes days after Mayor Adams went on a highly publicized rant, tearing into the migrant crisis crippling the Big Apple – which he warned will ‘destroy’ the city without urgent action. Speaking to furious residents at a town hall meeting on Wednesday, he admitted he doesn’t see a solution to the problem as he slammed the lack of help from Joe Biden . ‘Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,’ he conceded. ‘This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.’
He blamed both the state and federal government for ‘grossly inadequate’ funding to help with the crisis. Migrant services inside the city are also apparently on the chopping block, as Jiha wrote in the memo. ‘We are also reducing services being provided to asylum seekers and closely monitoring these services to ensure they are being delivered in the cost-efficient and cost-effective manner possible,’ he said. ‘The city is experiencing a humanitarian crisis we did not cause,’ Jiha wrote.
On Sunday, Adams said migrant woman and children who had been given priority at city shelters could soon find themselves out of in-door shelters. ‘We’re going to have to eventually move women and children into congregant settings. Some migrants might have to move into outside tents,’ he said in an interview aired Sunday on PIX11, according to the New York Daily News. ‘This is not an academic exercise, this is not a utopia. New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight. That can’t happen, and that is going to undermine this entire city,’ the mayor said on PIX11.
Patrick Hendry, head of the city’s biggest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, said that this is no time for cuts to overtime. ‘It is going to be impossible for the NYPD to significantly reduce overtime unless it fixes its staffing crisis,’ Hendry said. ‘We are still thousands of cops short, and we’re struggling to drive crime back to pre-2020 levels without adequate personnel. Despite mayor Adams’ cries for help from the state and federal government, the city has not received aid to cover the extra costs, so the $4.7billion would come from the city’s budget. That amount is equal to the budgets for the city’s sanitation, fire and parks departments combined.’
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There are now nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s care, with about 21,000 new migrant children starting school this year. Many of the migrants are being house in hotels and shelters throughout the city. That has led to scenes of migrants sleeping for days outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as they tried to get inside the at-capacity hotel. In other parts of town, protests have been held as migrants are held in schools with students returning to the classroom. As the school year kicked off on Thursday, some schools were forced to turn away students as the classrooms overflowed. City officials have said they expect the number asylum seeker population to reach nearly 33,980 households this fiscal year.
The city is currently paying about $385 a night per migrant family that needs housing and feeding. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers are costing the city roughly $10 million every day. An exasperated Adams did not mince words on Wednesday as he said the city’s survival hangs on outside help to deal with the crisis. ‘It started with a madman down in Texas deciding he wanted to bus people up to New York City,’ he said, referencing Texas governor Gregg Abbott’s busing of migrants to the city. Adams continued: ‘110,000 migrants we have to feed, clothe, house… we have to educate their children, wash their laundry sheets… give them everything they need.’
Many of the migrants have been bused in from southern states like Texas and Florida as the conservatives governors – such as Abbott Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – of these states look to put some of the migration pressure on progressive governments and President Joe Biden in Washington. They are not undocumented but do not have work permits, as they must wait months to receive them after applying for asylum. Experts say this is one of the main issues, as the migrants can’t work and become independent enough to find their own housing. A consent decree from decades ago, means the city must provide housing for all homeless individuals.
Last week, Abbott (pictured) ripped Adams and New York calling the mayor a ‘hypocrite’ for his warning. The Texas governor noted the migrant population in New York is a fraction of what Texas has faced coming from the border with Mexico. ‘Mayor Adams was proud to tout his self-described sanctuary city status until Texas began busing migrants to New York City to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities,’ Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘With millions of residents, New York is only dealing with a fraction of what our small border communities deal with on a day-to-day basis,’ Mahaleris continued in his statement.
There have been a flood of migrants arriving at the southern border under Biden’s administration, including a spike when Title 42 ended. As Title 42 ended, migrants crossing hit a record 10,000 a day at the border with Mexico. That crushed services and overwhelmed border towns, leading to some states to bus migrants to northern, liberal-led cities. Abbott’s move to begin bussing migrants in August 2022 came over a year after he launched ‘Operation Lone Star’, an initiative that allowed him to take sweeping action against asylum seekers filling Texas towns. He issued a disaster declaration in May 2021 in over 50 counties – most on or near the border – which granted him authority to deploy Texas National Guard troops and advanced his powers to detain.
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