The decision to transport illegal immigrants to destinations of their choosing is similar to what Texas has been doing since last spring.
New York City has started giving out one-way airplane tickets to illegal immigrants who wish to leave, a move denounced by progressive politicians as “human trafficking” and “un-American” when carried out by Republican governors of border states on the frontlines of the illegal immigration crisis.
The city, struggling to house and care for more than 130,000 illegal immigrants who arrived since last April, is now directing those ejected from their shelters to a “reticketing center,” established for the sole purpose of arranging their transportation out of New York.
“Attention: this is a reticketing hub! This is not a respite site or shelter,” a multilingual notice at the newly opened center in the East Village reads. “There are no beds at this site. We are here to help you get transportation to any state, or country, of your convenience.”
“When people come across the border, we have 108,000 cities and villages,” Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said Thursday in defense of the “reticketing” strategy. “We should spread them out across the entire country, and not just New York, Chicago, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston.”
Big Apple at Full Capacity
The move comes as Mr. Adams declared that his city has officially run out of indoor shelter space to house illegal immigrants, who are arriving at a rate of 2,500 to 4,000 each week. It also comes after the city’s fire department conducted a sweeping safety inspection and closed multiple shelters due to potential fire hazardous.
“With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants,” Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, said in a statement.
“Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys, and it helps us triage operations at The Roosevelt [Hotel] for new arrivals.”
By Bill Pan
