The "Right to Shelter", also known as the Callahan Consent Decree, was a class action lawsuit brought to the city by six homeless men, who challenged the sufficiency and quality of shelter for homeless men in New York in 1979; it was adopted in 1981; women were adopted in 1982 and families in 1986. The Callahan Consent Decree does not expressly name undocumented migrants or asylum seekers.  In short, the decree states that the city shall provide a bed, lockable storage unit and access to the use of paid payphones; meals were not mentioned. 

The “New York State Liberty Act” was passed in 2017, designating New York City as a Sanctuary City, which limits the role of local and state police involvement with respect to enforcing federal immigration laws. The Tenth Amendment, which stipulates the federal government can encourage states to adopt certain regulations through spending power, can also withhold funding from New York City should we not adopt said regulations. New York has only received 8M from FEMA as of early April.   

The “Right to Shelter” and status as a “Sanctuary City” are not mutually inclusive; one was meant as a safety net to native New Yorker’s and the latter as a means of “legal protection for refugees, asylum seekers and torture victims.” Neither stipulate an obligation to provide free long-term housing, healthcare and medical insurance, education, food, transportation or cell phones.

New York City is not against legal immigration; we simply cannot afford illegal immigration. As a sanctuary city, immigrants, both legal and illegal, can live here without the fear of being deported; it does not state we have to take care of them with taxpayer dollars while they do. Without tax revenue, the city and state would not be able to fund this debacle. Personal income tax accounted for $58.8B ($12B less than last year) and sales tax accounted for $20.6B (up $1B from last year); that speaks to New Yorkers fleeing the city and state or losing their jobs as well as the real cost of inflation, higher prices. 

Mayor Eric Adams cannot support the undocumented migrants or asylum seekers without taxpayers. If New Yorker’s withheld their income taxes for one week, it would translate to an immediate loss of roughly $1B; politicians would take notice. After all, Mayor Adams ordered $1B in annual budget cuts over the next four years, to accommodate the influx of undocumented migrants or asylum seekers he invited here. He wants to cut $4B in services over the next four years; New Yorker’s can remove $4B in tax revenue in just one month; we have the upper hand.

Resources are finite; the obligation to native New Yorkers must take priority over the needs and wants of individuals who were lured here with promises that cannot be kept; Mayor Adams put our money where his mouth is. Enough. 

Sanctuary status speaks to one’s right to live in the city, free from the harassment of law enforcement, regardless as to their immigration status. “The New State Liberty Act’ does not include anything about financial obligations or access to social programs, to said immigrants. The “Right to Shelter” was written specifically for homeless New Yorkers; it did not include undocumented migrants, and by letter of the law, must be excluded. 

City and state officials are obligated to prioritize the needs and wants of their constituents, as such, we demand the following:

1. Declare a state of emergency.
2. End our “Sanctuary Status” and allow law enforcement to do their jobs; of the 70K, how many undocumented migrants or asylum seekers have criminal records? Our safety must come first. 
3. Turn away all buses and flights New York bound; effectively immediately.
4. Return undocumented migrants or asylum seekers, who have a date with immigration court more than one year out, to the border. Or, have a judge hear the case on the spot and adjudicate accordingly. 
5. Require undocumented migrants or asylum seekers, who are waiting for a court date, to reside with friends and family until they have a date to appear; make them accountable financially. Return them to the border if they have no one to sponsor them. 
6. Prohibit the use of all school buildings, free-standing or otherwise, for shelter; this includes during winter and summer breaks. 
7. Prohibit the use of public parks, streets, parking lots and other tax-funded communal spaces for shelters. 
8. Place the remaining undocumented migrants or asylum seekers in the homes of politicians, advocates and New Yorkers who agree with the current state of the city and the policies that got us here; you pay for it. 

Bottom line: The majority of New Yorkers are against tax revenue covering expenditures for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, who contribute little to nothing fiscally. Enough. 

 

Takeaways for New Yorkers:

Lack of Affordable Housing: 4.4k units were evicted in 2022; 220k are currently on the docket – the average arrears is $9.5k; where will these newly evicted households go? Currently we have 70k homeless New Yorkers in shelters; 22K of them are children. There are 38k homeless vets living in the United States; an unknow number reside in New York. There are over 50k ghost apartments, that require an average of $100k in renovations, to bring them to code; they stand uninhabited. 

NYCHA: Houses roughly 340k residents in 162k units; $40B is needed to bring their buildings up to code; $8.6B approved was over the next four years; it is estimated that we will spend $10B on undocumented migrants and asylum seekers this year alone. 

Jobs: Various industries are still struggling to return to their pre-covid status, specifically in construction and hospitality. Hiring undocumented immigrants, coupled with AI replacing some jobs entirely, and companies laying off thousands of workers nationally, will increase the unemployment rate amongst native New Yorkers, and lower wages across the board. Language barriers can be hazardous when miscommunication leads to casualty. 

Tourism: As of May 2023, 103 hotels are occupied with undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers (that is 50% of the hotels in New York City); where will the 61M tourists, that are expected to travel to New York in 2023, stay? How will the increase in crime affect an already tenuous industry? New York is still in the process of recovering from covid mandates and travel restrictions. 

Hotels: The cost ranges from $9k to $14k per month, per room, to house undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers in hotel rooms. We have contracts with some hotels for months at a time; who negotiated the rates? How were the hotels picked? Who owns the hotels? Mayor Adams reportedly removed homeless veterans to accommodate undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers; a wedding party that booked over 30 rooms was cancelled despite the contract; why? Taxpayers are paying double and triple the going rate, for the privilege of filling the rooms with foreign guests opposed to domestic ones. Follow the money.

Education: Covid restrictions hindered children in public schools when compared to their counterparts in private, catholic or charter schools, as confirmed by recent state test scores. Educators are already in high demand; ESL teachers are extremely limited. Adding non-English speaking students to classes that only speak English create a language barrier that will further the divide academically and socially. Of note, non-resident children who attend public schools in New York are required to pay tuition; $5,425 for grades K-6 and $10k for grades 7-12 despite us allowing undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers to attend school for free; they also are provided free meals whereas some families pay based on income. 

Food Stamps: Babies of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers that are born here are now citizens who are entitled to food stamps, WIC, cash and forms of public assistance. 

Healthcare: Extending insurance coverage to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers will increase wait times and reduce the amount of care that can be provided. ER visits alone cost taxpayers $544 million in 2022; uninsured patients cannot be turned away for care. If the hospital cannot pay their bills; it closes; where will native New Yorkers go for care? Hospital staff are now out of work and will add to the population without managed care; everyone cannot have Medicaid, or the system will collapse; what revenue is being used to pay the tab? Additionally, the United States is already in the middle of a drug shortage. 

Insurance: Health, home, car and life insurance premiums will all increase to offset those without coverage.  Car accidents and fires will no doubt increase by sheer volume, which will directly affect home and life insurance policies. Didn't Mayor Adams just sign off on a contract that eliminates traditional Medicare for retired city and state workers? This is just a taste.

Court: Undocumented migrants increase the wait time for everyone waiting to be heard by a judge, most notably, immigrants who are following the law. Some cases are scheduled as far off as 2035; is New York expected to pick up the bill for the next decade?  Criminal and civil cases will also take longer to hear due to the increased number of cases on the docket.

Staffing: The NYPD, FDNY, DSNY, teachers, judges, jurors, lawyers and all public service departments will be affected. Hundreds of city and state workers were fired, forced to retire or change professions for not getting the vaccine; they have yet to be rehired with back-pay. These cuts have been felt across the city and will only be stretched thinner as resources become scarcer. The undocumented migrants’ vaccination status remain unknown. 

Crime: In additional to entering the border illegally, trespassing, drug possession, gang-violence robbery, assault, rape, grand larceny, fraud and murder cases will all go up. 

Drug Trafficking: There were 9k drug seizures at the border from October 2022 to March 2023; of which 343 were specific to Fentanyl in March 2023 alone – over 100k Americans died in 2022 due to drug overdoses. 

Sex Trafficking: Countless women and children are smuggled across the border; cartels charge thousands of dollars for the opportunity to live the American dream; they are raped and sold into slavery; kidnapped never to be seen again. Overall, 853 people died making the trip across the border in 2022. 

Disease: Chicken Pox, bed bugs, Hepatitis and HIV are common maladies that are brought across the border; lack of vaccinations or proof thereof, compound the issue. This, as well as acute and chronic illnesses, will wreak havoc on the medical industry. Garbage and rats will serve as breeding grounds for infection and infestation.  

Mental Illness: 1/3 of undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers experience mental illness, anxiety or PTSD.  Who pays for the care and medication they need if they do not have healthcare? How many are walking the streets, endangering the rest of us? 

Tax Revenue: To justify asylum, officials want you to believe that the economy needs them, when in fact it is just the opposite. In addition to the financial aspect, the opportunity costs associated with undocumented immigrants will touch every aspect of life as we know it.

 

In closing, ask yourself; did you sign up for this? If the answer is a resounding “NO”, please sign this petition and pass it around to every New Yorker you know; only WE can stop the madness.