South Queens, NY - Today, Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-AD 38) released an open letter to President Joseph Biden urging him to lead a robust and comprehensive response to address the migrant influx in New York City. 54 Elected Officials in New York City from the State Senate, State Assembly and City Council signed the letter. The elected officials call for the President to declare a State of Emergency, implement a decompression strategy at the southern border, let asylum seekers work by expediting work authorization, and provide more funding and resources to New York City. They call this moment “one of the most significant humanitarian crises New York City has ever faced” and say the city is at “a breaking point.” The Elected officials state they are ready to help and support the President in taking action.

The text of the letter is as follows:

Dear President Biden,

We are elected officials from New York City requesting your help. Our city is experiencing an unprecedented migrant influx, with a surge of asylum seekers arriving here in numbers never seen before in history. Our city is at a breaking point. We take pride in New York being a beacon of hope for immigrants, but the influx of migrants is so great that the city is running out of resources. New York City is being forced to reduce services for its people.

This is one of the most significant humanitarian crises New York City has ever faced. We cannot face it alone. We are requesting help from the White House. Specifically, we ask you for the following:

1. Declare a Federal State of Emergency. We need your leadership and a robust federal response to aid us in managing the migrant influx. A State of Emergency declaration will provide much-needed resources to New York City. Upon declaration of a State of Emergency, federal agencies will be able to coordinate efforts with our City and State to accommodate asylum seekers. The federal government could then provide migrants with assistance such as shelter, food relief, healthcare, legal aid, and transportation. This would be similar to the federal government’s 2014 response to the influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border, when the federal government sheltered thousands of children.

2. Expedite Work Authorization. The federal government must expedite the issuance of Employment Authorization Documents. It is a common sense and bi-partisan fix. Asylum seekers are arriving eager to work, and our Nation has 10 million job openings with 3.5 million fewer people in the workforce than projected pre-pandemic. Letting our recent arrivals work will allow them to support themselves and would boost our economy by fulfilling the labor demand. We ask that the White House take executive actions to expedite work authorization, such as classifying asylum seekers as refugees, expanding Temporary Protected Status, increasing access to humanitarian parole, and surging the number of officers processing asylum claims.

3. Create an Organized Strategy at the Border to Fairly Distribute Newcomers Across the Country. We ask that the federal government establish an organized system at the southern border to fairly distribute newcomers across the country. Federal officials should screen asylum claims at the southern border and then establish a plan for each migrant’s arrival. Federal authorities should distribute migrants fairly across all the many towns, cities, counties, and states across our beautiful country, relieving New York City of an undue logistical burden.

4. Provide Additional Federal Funding For New York City. The City of New York has carried the cost of sheltering, feeding and supporting over 80,000 asylum seekers in the last year, with over 4,000 still arriving every week. This has cost our city $1 billion and is projected to cost over $4.3 billion by June 2024. New York City received $104.6 million in federal FEMA funding, equivalent to a mere 13 days’ worth of costs we incur to house migrants. New York City must have more federal funding to manage the tens of thousands of asylum seekers we are hosting.

New Yorkers take pride in welcoming immigrants. Our country was founded by immigrants. Immigrants have boosted our economy and standing in the world. Immigrants contribute $2 trillion to our GDP each year. They are 20% of our essential workers. They drive our Nation’s innovation, being responsible for more than 75% of the patents filed by top universities. The “American Dream” remains the dream of people in all corners of the world, who seek to be a part of this land of opportunity, the Greatest Country on Earth. But more than this, our Nation needs immigrants in order to stay globally competitive. It is a matter of national security.Nations that seek to destroy America will outpace us, unless we utilize the power of immigrants and their contributions.

However, while we welcome immigrants to our city, the current unstructured state of immigration policy and response needs to end. There needs to be a system of rules in place to manage the migrant crisis. That is why we are pleading for the White House to step in and take leadership over the influx of asylum seekers. If you help our city run the response and provide the resources, allow the asylum-seeking population to work, and implement a decompression strategy at the southern border, this crisis will become manageable for New York City.

As New Yorkers who love our city, we stand ready to help and to support our President in taking leadership over one of the greatest crises New York City has ever faced. We hope that you consider our requests. We believe that with your leadership, we can turn this crisis into opportunity and that this can become one of history’s greatest success stories.

It would be our pleasure to speak with you further about how we can work together.

Yours in Service,

Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar

Senator Luis Sepulveda

Senator Brian Kavanagh

Senator Nathalia Fernandez

Senator Joseph P. Addabbo

Senator Leroy Comrie

Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Toby Ann Stavisky

Senator James Sanders

Assembly Member Ed Braunstein

Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia

Assembly Member George Alvarez

Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn

Assembly Member Eddie Gibbs

Assembly Member Kenny Burgos

Assembly Member Manny De Los Santos

Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi

Assembly Member Steven Raga

Assembly Member Nikki Lucas

Assembly Member Alicia Hyndman

Assembly Member David Weprin

Assembly Member Grace Lee

Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubry

Assembly Member Erik Martin Dilan

Assembly Member Nily Rozic

Assembly Member Chantel Jackson

Assembly Member Michael Benedetto

Assembly Member Amanda Septimo

Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz

Assembly Member Tony Simone

Assembly Member Harvey Epstein

Assembly Member William Colton

Assembly Member Juan Ardila

Assembly Member Ron Kim

Council Member Sandra Ung

Council Member Lynn Schulman

Council Member Linda Lee

Council Member Shaun Abreu

Council Member Jim Gennaro

Council Member Marjorie Velázquez

Council Member Keith Powers

Council Member Erik Bottcher

Council Member Eric Dinowitz

Council Member Julie Menin

Council Member Nantasha Williams

Council Member Farah Louis

Council Member Kamillah Hanks

Council Member Althea Stevens

Council Member Christopher Marte

Council Member Oswald Feliz

Council Member Kevin Riley

Council Member Francisco Moya