A new Siena College poll has revealed that the majority of New Yorkers believe the illegal immigration crisis plaguing New York City will “destroy” the city.
The poll released on Tuesday showed that 58% of New Yorkers agree with a previous statement made by NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) — that the illegal immigration crisis will “destroy New York City.”
NYC Mayor Eric Adams expIodes:
The migrants will “destroy New York City” and “everyone will be impacted” pic.twitter.com/R74LydILrR
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 7, 2023
Border Patrol encountered 2.2 million illegal aliens at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, and 2.06 million in 2023, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data. Since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has allowed over 5.5 million illegal aliens to enter the United States.
Since last year, more than 118,000 illegal aliens have arrived in New York City. Some estimates indicate that as many as 600 illegal aliens have been arriving in the city daily — and these illegals are costing the city roughly $10 million per day, with Adams previously warning that the total price tag already tripled to $12 billion.
While New York City has a “right to shelter” law, city officials like Adams have been working to suspend the measure because of the massive influx of illegal aliens. Earlier this month, the city began limiting illegal immigrant families to 60 days in city shelters and single adult illegals to 30 days.
New York City has also begun building large tents to house illegal aliens, as the city’s shelters have become overwhelmed.
If New York wasn't dead already this will kill it. The parks give New Yorkers air, space, and relaxation. This will make them unusable.
NYC considers turning public parks into tent cities to house illegal immigrantshttps://t.co/CHyxyN1yxv
— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) October 26, 2023
“It’s not ‘if’ people will be sleeping on the streets, it’s when,” Adams told reporters on Tuesday. “We are at full capacity. We have to sort of localize it as much as possible. We have to make sure that people have some type of restroom facilities, some type of shower network.”
All of these issues have led New Yorkers to express frustration and concern over the illegal immigration crisis — with respondents in the Siena College poll laying the blame on all levels of government in New York, but arguing that the most blame belongs to Biden.
The poll showed that 52% of registered voters in New York disapprove of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) handling of the crisis, while 46% disapprove of Adams’ handling of the issue and 64% disapprove of Biden’s handling of the crisis.
“Voters disapprove of the job Governor Kathy Hochul is doing to address the migrant influx by 15 points, but they disapprove of the job Adams is doing on the migrant issue by 16 points and they disapprove of the Biden Administration on this issue by a whopping 35 points, including a slight plurality of Democrats,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg wrote in a statement.
The poll results were also broken down by race — showing that a majority of White, Black, and Latino voters agreed that the crisis will “destroy” New York City.
“While other issues in Washington and abroad have largely driven the news cycle over the last few weeks, the influx of migrants to New York remains top of mind for voters, with 84% saying it’s a serious – 57% very serious – problem for the state,” Greenburg wrote. “Seldom do we see an issue where at least 79% of Democrats, Republicans, independents, men, women, upstaters, downstaters, Blacks, whites, Latinos, Catholics, Jews, and Protestants all agree – that the migrant influx is a serious problem.”
