You almost have to have some sympathy for New York City Mayor Eric Adams when it comes to the ongoing illegal migrant crisis. He has tried one thing after another to deal with the more than 100,000 migrants that have shown up in the Big Apple, from creating new shelter spaces to trying (and failing) to ship them out to the suburbs. But his hands are tied by the city’s sanctuary laws, requiring that it provide a roof for anyone who asks. This week, the Mayor decided to try to tackle the problem at its source. So he’s dispatching people down to the southern border to hand out flyers to migrants. The pamphlets will reportedly warn migrants that there is no more room in Gotham and that they should “consider another city” to travel to. How could such a brilliant plan possibly fail? (Reuters)

New York City will distribute flyers at the U.S.-Mexico border telling newly arrived migrants to “consider another city” and limit shelter stays for adult asylum seekers to 60 days as the city’s Democratic mayor says it is straining to house them.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the office of Mayor Eric Adams said the flyers would seek to “combat misinformation at the border” and that the city would help migrants find other housing and “take the next step in their journey.”

New York City says that it has provided services to 90,000 migrants since last spring and that nearly 55,000 remain in its care. Thousands of those migrants arrived on buses sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who has tried to shift the burden of receiving them to Democratic strongholds.

The flyers will reportedly be available in multiple languages since many of the new arrivals can neither speak nor read English. But this effort may wind up being more of a public relations stunt than an actual plan for action. The border is almost 2,000 miles long and literally tens of thousands of people are crossing it every day. How many people is he dispatching to the south and how many flyers are they printing? Also, many parts of the border are dangerous and not everyone coming across is a “migrant.” Will Mayor Adams be sending random, unarmed citizens to potentially try to hand flyers to cartel members and drug mules?

The premise underlying Adams’ proposal is also a bit disingenuous. He claims that the flyers are part of an attempt to “combat misinformation at the border.” But what exactly is it that is being considered misinformation? Some of these people are being shipped out on buses while others are coming on their own. New York City is a prime destination precisely because it has long declared itself a “sanctuary” that will provide anyone in need with shelter. That’s not misinformation. It’s the official municipal policy. Of course migrants are going to show up asking for a room.

And then there is the Mayor’s other new policy limiting stays for migrants in shelters to 60 days. At the end of that period, they will either need to check out or reapply. Even the New York Daily News could see the glaring holes in this plan.

In the latest chapter in the city’s ongoing saga over the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers and fewer and fewer places to put them, Mayor Adams announced yesterday that the city would mandate single adult migrants to reapply for placement after a 60-day period. The requirement would be paired with casework, but it’s not totally clear what they’re supposed to do if and when this doesn’t result in housing. It’s also not clear how it comports with the city’s right to shelter provisions; while the mayor is attempting to modify aspects of the agreement, it remains very much in place.

At the end of the 60-day period, what is the point of having the migrant reapply for shelter? If you haven’t found any long-term place for them to stay, how would you legally deny their second request? It seems like doing so would violate the “right to shelter” provisions of the sanctuary law.

None of these policies or pamphlets are going to change the underlying reality that there are simply far too many illegal migrants showing up in the Big Apple and officials have nowhere to put them. Adams has already asked the City Council to modify the right to shelter law, but they have been unwilling to do so. What they really need to do is scrap the law altogether and do away with all of the sanctuary status nonsense. These people came into the country illegally and they need to be removed. New York has enough of its own legal residents who are homeless and in need of help. That needs to be the Mayor’s priority. And this “sanctuary city” nonsense has been exposed for the total farce that it is. Enough is enough.