Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella commends Mayor Adams statement on migrant family status

We commend Mayor Adams and his announcement today for stating that the thousands of migrants flooding New York City is completely unsustainable. We said the same weeks ago. 
In fact, I and three of our council members of the Staten Island delegation sent a letter to the New York City Independent Budget Office asking for a cost analysis of migrant families coming into the city who will impact the boroughs’ resources. We are pleased the Mayor has stated strongly how this will impact all New Yorkers and cost us upwards of $1 billion, if not more. This is a problem our city did not create. It is a federal issue which requires a federal solution.   
If the city expects to spend at least $1 billion on this crisis, by our math, that’s almost $60,000 being spent per person for the 17,000 migrants NYC has accepted so far. As we await a final report from IBO, we will continue to seek to work with the Adams administration to get to a solution that steers into a different direction. This report is expected to be complete within the next two weeks. 
There isn’t a more generous country than the United States and the people of Staten Island are always willing to help those in need - whether it is food, clothing, or shelter. It is not about this notion of a lack of compassion or understanding, but that Staten Islanders are forced to deal with an issue they did not create.  
Earlier this week, our office stood with Congresswoman Malliotakis, Councilmembers Carr and Borelli, and members of the Travis Civic Association outside the Comfort Inn in Travis to oppose the stay of migrant families who were placed in the neighborhood without notice. We reiterated, as we had done in the letter to IBO, that the instability of this approach is the beginning of no end in sight.  
City Hall recently announced that city agencies have to cut their budgets and inevitably will translate to cuts for Staten Island and other New Yorkers. The Mayor has issued a warning to the federal government, and to state and fellow citizens that we need a course of action immediately. We need better answers, we need a better solution, and we stand ready to work with Mayor Adams to solve this problem New York did not create.  ​