Migrants turned away from NYC’s overcrowded ‘relief centers’ after arriving from Colorado, sent to homeless shelters: sources

The Adams administration’s humanitarian relief centers for migrants are so full that dozens of asylum seekers were turned away from them last week after being bussed to New York from Colorado, according to activists and a city government official familiar with the matter.

The Latin American migrants in question got to the city late Friday night on two buses from Denver, according to Adama Bah, an activist with Team TLC NYC, a volunteer group that helps asylum seekers access services and shelter.

Bah, who welcomed the migrants when they arrived shortly before 11 p.m. at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, said it’s her group’s preference to get asylum seekers beds in one of the city’s four so-called Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, which operate out of hotels and offer a slate of services.

[ Mayor Adams says Colorado is sending migrants to NYC without notice, but state’s Dem governor calls bull ]

But on Friday night, Bah said she and other volunteers were informed they couldn’t send the arrivals from Colorado to the HERRCs because they were all at capacity. Bah said the migrants were instead told to seek placement in the city homeless shelter system.

A city government official who was also at Port Authority on Friday night corroborated Bah’s account. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter without authorization, the official told the Daily News that a total of 52 people were on the two buses that arrived from Denver, including seven children.

Bah said volunteers eventually ended up securing placement in HERRCs for three migrant families on the buses from Denver, and the rest sought beds in the shelter system.

[ NYC expected to get ‘substantial share’ of $800M in federal aid for migrant crisis: source ]

A spokeswoman for Mayor Adams would not comment specifically on what happened Friday, but said “asylees arriving at Port Authority are referred to HERRCs contingent on capacity.”

“If, at that time, there is no capacity at the HERRCs, they are referred to a DHS shelter,” the spokeswoman said, using an acronym for Department of Homeless Services.

The spokeswoman also would not specify the total capacities for the city’s four HERRCs, but said the Adams administration was housing more than 26,100 mostly Central and South American migrants as of Sunday night, including in shelters.

The overcrowding in the HERRCs come on the heels of Mayor Adams blasting Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a fellow Democrat, for sending hundreds of migrants to New York in recent weeks after they arrived in his state.

“For that governor to do that, this is just unacceptable,” Adams said last Wednesday, adding that Polis “didn’t even notify us” about the migrant transports, similar to how Republican governors in Texas and other border states have sent thousands of migrants to Democratic cities like New York without coordination.

Adams followed that up with issuing Polis a letter together with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, in which they charged that many of the migrants he sent to both cities “do not have any” local ties.

“You must stop busing migrants to Chicago and New York City,” the mayors wrote.

The complaint appears to have had an effect, as Polis told the mayors in a phone call over the weekend that he wouldn’t charter any more buses to New York and Chicago beyond Sunday, according to the governor’s office.

In a statement, Polis said the federal government had “failed” in its handling of immigration, echoing Adams’ long-running complaints.

“People fleeing violence and oppression in search of a better life for themselves and their families deserve our respect not political games,” the governor said, “and we are grateful we have been able to assist migrants to reach their final destination.”

[ Migrants bound for NYC spent five days on buses after getting stuck in winter storm: ‘They were in disarray’ ]

Nearly 40,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York since this spring, city data shows. Most of them are fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries in hopes of obtaining asylum in the U.S.

Adams regularly says he’s committed to sheltering and helping the migrants, but has also said the massive influx is straining city resources to the brink of collapse.

President Biden’s administration is in the process of allocating some emergency funding for New York to deal with the migrant crisis, but Adams has pressed for more.

“I’m saying to the federal government and everyone else that New York has done its share, that’s not callous,” he said last week. “What’s callous is how we have been ignored as a city.”

With Tim Balk