Buses of migrants begin arriving as a new crisis unfolds
Thousands of asylum seekers sent from the southern border strained the city's shelter system and tested its status as a sanctuary.
Buses carrying asylum seekers from the southern border began arriving in New York this summer, the start of what would become a defining crisis for the city as thousands of migrants sought shelter and services, straining a system already stretched thin.
The arrivals came after governors of border states began sending migrants to Democratic-led cities, in a move city officials condemned as a political stunt that used vulnerable people as pawns. Many arrived with little more than the clothes they wore, and were taken into the city's shelter system, which is legally obligated to provide a bed to anyone who needs one.
Mayor Adams declared that the city would welcome the new arrivals, invoking New York's long history as a haven for immigrants, but he also pleaded for help from the state and federal governments, warning that the city could not shoulder the costs alone.
As the numbers grew into the tens of thousands over the following months, the city opened emergency shelters in hotels, tents and other sites, and the cost ballooned into the billions of dollars, forcing difficult budget decisions and testing the city's capacity and its politics.
The crisis would come to dominate city government, exposing the limits of its resources and the failures of national immigration policy, and placing New York at the centre of one of the country's most contentious debates.