Immigrants Strain Communities Nationwide; Cross-Section Shows Destinations, Parole Violations; New York and Other U.S. Cities Struggle with High Costs of Migrant Arrivals

Immigrants strain communities nationwide; cross-section shows destinations, parole violations

New York may be complaining the loudest about the influx of illegal immigrants, but government data shows the migrants from the Biden border surge are reaching every corner of the country and straining communities’ ability to accommodate them.

The numbers are so overwhelming that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hasn’t been able to start deportation proceedings in about half of the cases, according to data provided to a federal court tracking roughly 2,500 migrants caught and released over a few days in May.

One hundred of the migrants failed to check in with ICE altogether, the government said. They are now in violation of their parole, but the Homeland Security Department did not say what will happen to them.

The data gives an unprecedented look at a cross-section of the migrants arriving at the border and the government’s struggles to handle them.

Roughly 18% of the new arrivals, about 1 in 6, headed for New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. Another 30% went to the Chicago, Boston, Miami and San Francisco regions. Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, New Orleans and the District of Columbia also ranked as top destinations.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “paroled” the migrants into the country in anticipation of the expiration of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and the end of the Title 42 border policy. The migrants were released despite a court order blocking parole. A federal judge has demanded that the government report on the migrants’ whereabouts and compliance with their parole terms.

According to the latest documents filed last month, of the 2,572 illegal immigrants in the population, 2,472 have checked in with ICE, but just 1,290 have been served with a charging document, or Notice to Appear. Without an NTA, they are not yet in deportation proceedings.

Another 100 have not checked in at all, despite the requirement that they do so within 60 days.

“If you want to know how the Biden administration has broken our immigration system, look no further than how it has responded to these aliens,” said Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge and senior staffer on immigration matters on Capitol Hill.

ICE did not respond to an inquiry for this report. In court documents, the government said it was pondering its options and had reported parole violators to ICE’s fugitive teams for “appropriate” action.

“Enforcement actions are determined on a case-by-case basis and may include, but are not limited to, arrest, increased monitoring through the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program and/or confinement in a detention facility,” Daniel A. Bible, ICE’s deputy associate director, told the judge. —>READ MORE HERE

New York and other U.S. cities struggle with high costs of migrant arrivals:

The likely record number of asylum seekers and other migrants entering the United States after being apprehended at the southern border is placing an unprecedented financial strain on states and cities nationwide, even as local governments continue to recover from the economic toll resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of federal support to significantly defray state and local costs, long waits for migrants to work legally, and large numbers arriving without connections in the country have combined to create an inordinate burden for several major receiving cities, which have spent billions to meet immediate needs. The situation has aggravated already tight housing markets and prompted a blame game pitting city, state, and federal leaders against each other.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been most vocal about his frustration with the federal government, sparking tensions with the White House with recent remarks that a migrant influx he estimates will cost New Yorkers $12 billion by mid-2025 “will destroy” the city.

While cities have historically absorbed and integrated new migrants with success, the challenges brought by the new border arrivals are due not only to the high numbers but also the diversity of nationalities, the large share arriving as families, and the overwhelming number who seek asylum. New arrivals are entitled to almost no federal public benefits and those lacking a family or social connection in the United States are having difficulty finding a foothold in U.S. communities. Unlike in the past, when migrants arriving without authorization tended to avoid federal authorities, new border entrants have already been processed by the government, so may be more likely to ask for government assistance.

The challenge is most severe in New York City, which has a unique legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who needs it. The city has struggled to house migrants while also handling the regular challenges of unhoused New Yorkers, and has turned to hotels, a cruise ship terminal, a former police academy building, and other locations. New York and other cities are also bearing the burden of paying for medical care, schooling, food, and other services.

Although the full fiscal impacts of providing services to the newcomers are unknown, mayors and governors nationwide have cited high costs. New York City spent an estimated $1.7 billion on shelter, food, and other services for migrants through the end of July. Chicago expects to have spent $255.7 million between August 2022 and the end of 2023. Washington, DC spent $36.4 million on migrant services by late August, and expects the total to reach $55.8 million by October. Denver, where leaders estimate that every new arrival costs an average of between $1,600 to $2,000, has spent $24 million on migrant services as of September. And the impacts are not just on city budgets. Massachusetts’s governor said the state was spending $45 million a month on migrant services as of August. Strained resources have prompted mayors and governors, many of them Democrats, to join a chorus of criticism directed at the Biden administration for its handling of increased migrant arrivals.

In recognition of the strains on public coffers and political relationships, the administration last week offered Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to as many as 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the United States on or before July 31, which would provide them 18 months of protection from deportation and work authorization. This designation supplemented a prior TPS offer to Venezuelans and greatly expands the total number of TPS-eligible people of various nationalities, to nearly 1.7 million. But given current processing challenges at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), it may still take several months for eligible Venezuelans to receive their work permits and formally enter labor markets. —>READ MORE HERE

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