New York City has poured millions of dollars into creating a reception site and intake facility for migrants who arrive in Manhattan on buses from the Texas border.
The city completed and opened this week a “welcome center” in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan that will give migrants a central location for information about public school enrollment, employment, and housing. The center opened its doors this week with a soft launch.
“The concept and the plan is to have various city providers on site as a one-stop, one-time, get as many things done as you can,” a source familiar with the undertaking told the New York Post.
The cost was covered through a $6.7 million contract that the city entered into last month in an effort to better receive the migrants arriving from Texas daily. The site is not new construction and is housed in a Red Cross facility. Its exact cost was not clear.
‘FLAT-OUT LYING’: ABBOTT OFFICIAL DENIES MIGRANTS MUST SIGN NDAS TO BOARD BUSES
Nonprofit organization Catholic Charities is running the welcome site.
An additional facility meant for intaking new arrivals is in the planning phase, the New York Post reported. The city is also working to find housing for 5,000 across the city and has received 18 bids from contractors.
Around 7,600 migrants who took state-funded buses from the southern border to New York City are in the city’s shelter program.
In April, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas would use contracted buses and drivers to provide migrants released into the United States from the border with free transportation to Washington, D.C. The move was partly political and partly logistical for how it alleviated pressure on border towns that do not have adequate Greyhound buses to major cities in other parts of the state.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The nearly 8,000 people who voluntarily boarded the buses to New York and Washington since April are among more than 1 million people who have been let go from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and allowed to remain in the U.S. pending court proceedings. The 1 million are allowed to travel anywhere in the country, though some have opted for the free ride on state-funded buses rather than paying out of pocket for transportation.
