Chicago, New York City not prepared for 'nightmare winter' as migrants continue to arrive: report
CHICAGO - Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S. are facing housing shortages and a "nightmare winter" as migrants continue to arrive in major cities, according to a media report on Friday.
The Politico article, headlined "Democratic cities brace for a nightmare winter housing migrants," detailed the effects of the migrant crisis on New York City and Chicago.
Some cities are facing a worse crisis than others. In "New York, where shelters are also full, the city has taken the extraordinary steps of providing migrants one-way plane tickets to as far away as Morocco and have contemplated handing out tents to newly-arriving migrants so they can sleep in parks," per Politico's report.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has repeatedly called on the Biden administration to provide aid in dealing with migrants.
Adams, who slashed budgets in multiple departments due to the spiraling costs of the migrant crisis, said Tuesday that the goal is not to have people sleeping on the streets, but the "visible signs of this crisis is going to start to show itself."
Adams said that over 140,000 migrants have come into the city since last year and "thousands are still coming in each week" and numbers are increasing. "Believe it or not, there are migrants and asylum seekers who are saying, ‘We want to sleep on the streets.’ And so people have a right to do so, we need to be clear on that in New York City, because of the city council’s actions people have a right to sleep on the streets that we cannot stop. I want New Yorkers to understand that," he said.
Adams told Fox News Digital in a statement that New York City no longer has the space for migrants.
"As we have said repeatedly, more than 140,000 asylum seekers have come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, all of whom have been offered vital care, including shelter, food, access to medical care, casework services, legal assistance, and more," the statement read.
Adams continued: "But, with more than 65,600 migrants still currently in our care, and thousands more continuing to arrive every week, we have used every possible corner of New York City and are, quite simply, out of space to shelter migrants. As the temperature starts to drop, it is crucial — now more than ever — that the federal government finish the job they started. We need meaningful financial help and a national decompression strategy. New York City cannot continue to manage a national crisis almost entirely on its own."
Chicago, which also has a Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, is also expecting a harsh winter and is dealing with stark political divides between residents and government officials.
"Black and brown residents," Politico wrote, "have resisted the city’s attempt to build heated base camps for migrants in their neighborhoods. That in turn has delayed the process to get migrants out of the elements."
South Side Alderperson Ronnie Mosley told Politico that Chicagoans "are seeing that after all this time of promising something for us, nothing has come of it. Now you have folks who have just come to this country, and they’re being serviced."
Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.