Depleting the NYPD is an Avoidable Disaster

Failed border and Immigration policies are destroying public safety in New York City

Dec 01, 2023

Statue of Liberty — Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash

Mayor Eric Adams, likely chosen over candidates by scoring higher on public safety, has declared stiff and severe budget cuts as New York City faces an immediate current year budget shortfall of $4,000,000,000 due to obligations for feeding and housing a surge of illegal aliens pouring into town. According to City Journal:

At last Thursday’s mid-month budget update, New York mayor Eric Adams announced about $4 billion in cuts, prompted by $10.8 billion in migrant-related costs in this and the next fiscal year. Even with the cuts, New York City faces budget shortfalls of $7 billion in fiscal 2025 and more than $6 billion in both 2026 and 2027.

The mayor has appealed to both the state and federal government without a positive response. Programs are being cut to the bone with all city services, most experiencing 20% cuts. To his credit, he has appealed to his own city council with negative results. Adams is currently a target of a federal election law violation case and has been sued for sexual assault this month. However, he has presented his part in this dilemma is as an unwilling passenger and not the driver. A 42 year old legal precedent, supported by the city council has his hands tied.

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How many illegal aliens are in New York City?

The best answer is an additional 110,000 since the summer of 2022. Only about 50% have a superficial claim of asylum, with only about 2.5% having what will be adjudicated as a legitimate claim. The asylum court backlog is a decade long. Run the numbers and fewer than 2,000 of those in the city arriving in the last 12 months will be recognized by the court when everyone finally gets their court date, many years in the future.

While buses are being sent by the Texas governor, the majority of arrivals are coming on other bus charters and airplane.

“You don't have human rights," said Mark Miller, an immigrant from Russia who arrived in the city in May and was waiting in line for a new shelter bed. "You're nobody, you're not American homeless, you're immigrant homeless."
“It's different, believe me," Miller added. "I feel it, and all these people feel it the same.”
“The line is longer than yesterday,” said Ismail Gangue, a 20-year-old migrant from Mauritania. “I need to do my asylum here because in my country, I'm not free.”

Mr. Miller and Mr. Gangue did not get off the bus from Eagle Pass.

School is an issue for families. It also gives the nation receiving students an accurate measurement of the demographics of ‘arrivals.’ Most of the 13,500 migrant families with children under the city’s care reside in shelters run by the Department of Homeless Services, city data shows. As of 10/10/23, the City has spent an average of $394 per household per night for asylum seekers, using cost data through 8/31/23. The City calculates per diem rateson a lag due to agency revisions to recent cost estimates.

The 60-day notices are going to the 4,200 families living in shelters run by NYC Health and Hospitals, though it’s not clear what criteria the city is using to decide which families receive their notice first.

The majority of family data is two adults and one or two children. That makes the remainder, in NYC either single or lone males. They are currently from up to 160 countries.

people walking on street during daytime — Photo by Barbara Zandoval on Unsplash

Is it because New York is a sanctuary city?

That is only a small part of it. As a so-called sanctuary city, that legal protection generally restricts the local government from detainers and reporting illegal immigrant contacts to appropriate federal authorities. A detainer is an authorization to hold a non-citizen released from prison at the end of their sentence for deportation. Sanctuary city supporters must believe a delusion that we have a shortage of convicted felons. Officials who act in furtherance of municipal or county sanctuary resolutions and ordinances are in violation of law, either state or federal.

“In 1981, Koch’s administration settled a constitutional lawsuit with homeless-rights advocates to provide shelter on demand to homeless men in the Bowery. That consent decree set in motion a legal juggernaut: the “right to shelter,” a series of court-approved agreements that purport to establish, for all time, New York City’s obligations to give immediate shelter to all who request it. The right to shelter’s judicial approval grants it the force of law.”

It's unknown if right to shelter can be overturned but instead of spending billions on food and shelter, it is certainly more economical to spend billions on the most aggressive legal team in the world to end this madness once and for all.

Right to shelter, in New York State ends at the city limits of the five boroughs, and Governor Hochul is navigating her support of the city very carefully to avoid any type of semantic obligation where it is assumed anywhere else.

a group of police officers standing around parked motorcycles — Photo by Toms Rīts on Unsplash

NYPD facing multiple unfair challenges

The New York City Police Department has a new commissioner appointed who is associated with a restaurant in The Bronx that has a checkered past. His staff appointments, and his general comportment, have frustrated the rank and file.

The department is still reeling from the adversarial Covid vaccine mandates and meddling by the city hall Adams administration in internal police issues, resulting in the departure of the last commissioner. This has predictably fomented substantial distrust of both police leadership and the city. Mayor Adams announcement of budget cuts and staffing reductions are in accord with the morale of the department.

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“Under City Hall’s newly unveiled updated 2024 financial plan, the next five police academy classes will be axed — essentially decimating an already strained department as roughly 4,500 officers are expected to leave their ranks within the next 18 months.”

However, officers have seen the writing on the wall. The New York Post reports: “The number of cops quitting before they reach the 20 years required to receive their full pensions also skyrocketed from 509 in 2020 to 1,040 so far this year — an alarming 104% increase, the data show.”

While I have no data or charts to support my assertion, I predict that the 110,000 plus homeless illegal aliens will demand outsized public safety needs compared with NYC residents with stable housing.

The open border and the right to shelter city

It is widely reported that Mayor Eric Adams and President Joe Biden haven’t spoken in a year, but it is challenging to believe that all these events happened in isolation. Generally, illegal aliens are not allowed to work in the conventional economy. Now, NYC residents are being shortchanged to pay for people who can’t work to earn money to buy food or pay rent. Are they being squeezed to demand right-to-work and effectively alter federal immigration law? For generations, congress has bickered about the path to citizenship and amnesty of illegal aliens. Is this crisis created to muster enough outcry for these immigration concerns to be put aside for the sake of emergency? The levers have been pulled. There is no dispute there. The only question is whether this was done in coordination.

Please keep all officers in your prayers, especially the NYPD!