Overwhelmed sanctuary New York City has begun distributing fliers at border telling illegal immigrants not to come

New York City Mayor Eric Adams admitted last month that his invitation to house illegal immigrants at Gracie Mansion was purely symbolic. Now, it appears the city is similarly willing to admit that its sanctuary status was little more than empty rhetoric.

Adams is reportedly having fliers distributed at the U.S.-Mexico border stating, "Since April 2022, more than 90,000 migrants have come to New York City (NYC). ... There is no guarantee we will be able to provide shelter and services to new arrivals."

The New York Times reported that more than 90,000 illegal immigrants have poured into the city since last spring. Roughly 55,000 are presently dependent on municipal supports intended for American citizens. The illegal immigrants and the city's extant homeless population together have left the NYC with a shelter record of over 105,800 people in its care.

Foreign nationals are presently crowding over 188 sites, including 18 humanitarian centers, converted hotels, school gymnasiums, and religious buildings.

Ted Long, senior vice president at NYC Health + Hospitals, told the Times, "Our compassion is infinite. ... Our space is not."

The city's slush funds are also not infinite.

The city figures it'll blow nearly $4.3 billion dealing with the illegal-immigrant crisis by next summer, according to Adams — especially troublesome owing to the deficits NYC has racked up in recent years.

To further discourage foreign nationals from taking residence in the Big Apple after stealing into the nation, the Democrat-run city's flier states, "The cost of food, transportation, and other necessities in NYC is the highest in the United States."

Rather than attempt to dissuade illegal immigrants from coming into America altogether, the flier suggests they "consider another city" as they make their "decision about where to settle in the U.S."

This par for the course. In recent months, NYC has tried to hand off its problem to nearby suburbs, some of which responded by declaring states of emergency and accusing Adams of hypocrisy.

Before attempting to ask illegal immigrants to reconsider moving to New York City, Adams first tried asking a court to reconsider the city's sanctuary status.

Noting that the "law of sanctuary city was in place" long before he took office, back when "no one thought that they would be dealing with a humanitarian crisis of this proportion," Adams pleaded with a judge in May, suggesting it might be time revisit the policy.

TheBlaze previously reported that former Mayor Ed Koch signed an executive order in 1989, declaring New York a sanctuary city.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg went farther than Koch, signing executive orders forbidding city employers, including members of the NYPD, from asking residents about their immigration status.

As mayor, Bill de Blasio — another Democrat — passed a sanctuary city law in October 2014, ensuring New York would remain a sanctuary for illegal immigrants even if they were violent felons or on the terrorist watch list, reported the New York Post.

Adams later jumped on board, vowing to hinder federal efforts to deport criminal noncitizens when running for office and indicated he would maintain NYC's "sanctuary city status." Adams even went so far as to support legislation that would allow foreign nationals to vote in local elections.

Now facing the consequences of Democratic aspirations and a decades-old court order requiring it to give shelter to anyone who comes asking, NYC is hoping to preclude more people from asking in the first place.

However, some NYC leftists suggest the problem is not the foreign nationals illegally pouring into the country but the fact that those taking advantage of shelters aren't being given permanent homes fast enough.

Murad Awawdeh, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, told the Times, "I think that the real solution here is not continuously doing half measures and short cuts. ... It’s actually doing the work of getting people out of the shelter system and into permanent housing."

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, well over 1.7 million illegal immigrants stole into the U.S. between October 2022 and June. Another 3.8 million reportedly came in between the time President Joe Biden took office and September 2022.

While NYC claims to be overwhelmed, many border states and cities that did not signal sanctuary status have been all but overrun.

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