Ian Patrick, FISM News
The asylum-seeking immigrants sent up to New York City may be attending college at the expense of city taxpayers, at least according to a new plan of action unveiled by Mayor Eric Adams.
On March 7, Adams and his office unveiled The Road Forward: Blueprint to Address New York City’s Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis, a plan to tackle the immigration crisis within their city. The plan includes the creation of the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations (OASO) to oversee the effort.
“Over the past year, New York City has faced an unprecedented humanitarian crisis caused by global forces beyond our control,” Adams said during a press event. “New Yorkers know that the asylum seeker of today is the citizen, the leader, and the innovator of tomorrow, and I’m proud that New York City is leading the way, turning a crisis into an opportunity for progress for the entire country.”
The overall goal of the plan is to help New York City “transition from an emergency response-approach to a steady state-approach.” But at least one aspect of the plan isn’t sitting well with New Yorkers.
According to the blueprint, part of the OASO’s job will be to figure out housing and resettlement procedures for the tens of thousands of migrants currently living in the city. This includes working with religious institutions and nonprofits.
But the report adds another aspect to this part of the plan in a partnership with two local learning centers.
“The city is also launching an innovative pilot with The Center for Discovery and SUNY Sullivan to offer 100 asylum seekers the opportunity to live at the SUNY Sullivan campus and receive workforce training as they move through the federal work authorization process,” a writeup of the blueprint states.
While the total cost of this endeavor wasn’t revealed in either the blueprint or the write-up, the New York Post reports that the cost is likely upwards of $1.2 million.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chair, commented on the plan telling the Post that it will make “a permanent welfare system for illegal immigrants in New York State.”
“By spending New Yorkers’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars on college classes for migrants, he is incentivizing and rewarding illegal immigration simply to export the crisis of Democrats’ own making out of New York City,” Stefanik said.
City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) also reacted to the plan, telling the Post that it’s the clearest sign “that the Biden administration is not helping us at all — and that it’s simply on us to set these people up for the rest of their lives in the US.”
A spokesman for The Center for Discovery tried to lighten the news, telling the Post that the money will go to “supplies for people to live on, and the dorms and food.”
Still, the current situation in New York is reportedly costing the city nearly $5 million a day with no word from the Biden administration.
The border crisis has consistently strained the resources in states that directly deal with the problem like Texas, Florida, and Arizona. Despite the promise of Democrat states like New York claiming to be a sanctuary for asylum-seekers, the responsibility of following through is proving to be quite the challenge.