DLNews Staff:

The situation is "out of control"  Mayor Eric Adams declares a state of emergency.

The Statue of Liberty is New York's most recognizable landmark. It stands for political freedom and democracy. It symbolizes the unofficial gateway to a better life and welcomes the persecuted and restless. But even their hospitality seems to be drowning in the current wave of illegal immigrants...

More than 20,000 immigrants, most of them illegal, have entered the Big Apple in recent weeks. Many were driven to New York on buses from Mexican border states such as Texas or Arizona.

Mayor Eric Adams (62), who at the beginning of the wave of immigrants still boasted about how open and hospitable the metropolis was to immigrants, now declared a state of emergency.

Even the already overcrowded homeless shelters are full, with more than 61,000 people. So there is no room for newcomers from the south. Still, new buses are rolling into the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Many are from Texas. The trips are - often for political reasons - organized by Governor Greg Abbott (64).

The Republican argues that liberal metropolises should also feel the pressure from record-breaking immigration numbers. But Democrats, like the mayor of El Paso, Texas, who was overrun by migrants, Oscar Leeser (64), is also sending buses to New York.

The arrival area in the bus terminal is now hermetically sealed. The media should no longer film the immigrants disembarking. I don't want anyone to see what's going on here. I don't want anyone to see their dream of a better life in America turn into a nightmare.

Last weekend alone more than 2000 people arrived. The city administration is now desperately looking for accommodation. But this leads to more significant problems: migrants are housed in hotels, often wandering through the suburbs hungry and freezing.

A whole tent city was erected. Adams also temporarily planned to accommodate stranded people on a cruise ship. Even in the chic luxury hotel "Row NYC" near Times Square ($400 a night), 200 families will be accommodated.

New York City is becoming a frontier city amid historic crowds at the US southern border (more than 2.1 million illegal border crossings in 12 months). The costs are exorbitant: the New York 2022 drama will cost more than a billion dollars.

A vast tent city is erected on Randall's Island between Manhattan and Queens, a detention center for stranded migrants. The first beds have already been set up, workers are screwing together metal rods, and beeping construction machines are transporting material.

The last time there was a tent city in New York during the Corona hell in the spring of 2020. Now white tents are once again becoming symbols of a crisis. Criticism was promptly raised because of the remote location: right behind the tent city is a psychiatric clinic and an emergency shelter for violent homeless people. In addition, it is feared that there could be outright uprisings among immigrants because of the threat of cabin fever on the isolated island.

Pizzeria owner attacked for giving food to refugees.

Scene changes to the south of the city area. Staten Island was a quiet part of New York, characterized by idyllic settlements, until hundreds of migrants showed up here, too, practically overnight. They were accommodated in several hotels by the town hall. Many residents vacillate between helpfulness and horror.

"They suddenly stood in front of my restaurant, freezing and hungry," says the owner of the pizzeria "Verde's Pizza and Pasta House," Sebastian Bongiovanni (51): "I gave them food, in such a situation you just have to help." But, of course, he was also attacked for this: "Some insult me ​​on the street!" That's how great the anger would be here now. He criticizes the authorities' haphazard approach to accommodating the migrants far away from any job or housing options: Here in this quiet suburb, very few have any prospects, he says.

The situation is "out of control" - there are reports of criminal incidents and open street prostitution.

As a "believing Christian," Dorothy C. wants to help, but the situation is "out of control."

Dorothy C. lives near the hotels; she tells of criminal incidents and even open street prostitution. Once, migrants knocked on her door in the middle of the night and asked for food and clothing. She is happy to help people as a "believing Christian," but the situation has gotten "out of control."

Migrants stand together in front of the Holiday Inn hotel. There are many families there. Mothers breastfeed babies while squatting on the side of the road. Aid supplies that helpers brought are housed on several tables and in an old camper van. A man approached the young woman from the car, probably looking for paid sex.

Alexander is one of the six million people who have fled South America's poor house, Venezuela, in recent years. "I came here because of the bad situation at home, I love New York, and I'm very, very grateful to be here," he says. He wants to find work quickly: "It doesn't matter what it is, in construction or as an electrician." He has four children and urgently needs a job.

The only 19-year-old Rixi from Venezuela had left her two children in Colombia. She wants to earn money so that she can catch up quickly. Her acquaintance, who doesn't even want to say his first name for fear of reprisals, describes the odyssey before arriving in the USA, which led through seven countries. The most dangerous route is the "Darién Gap," a footpath through the jungle between Colombia and Panama as the only land route between South and North America where criminals and rebels lurk. He also wants to catch up with his children.

The basic tenor among the migrants is: They want to work but seem at a loss as to exactly how to proceed. As a result, you feel stranded in the remote part of the city.

US President Joe Biden (79) under pressure: How does he want to deal with the historic rush of people at the borders? There have been more than 2.1 million illegal border crossings on the US southern border alone in the past 12 months.

The pressure on the Democrats and US President Joe Biden (79) to bring the number of crossings at the border under control is growing. However, there are also rumblings within his own party: Adams, for example, admitted, given the chaos in his city, that the current rush to the border could not be "sustained" ...