New York mayor may use cruise ships to house migrants being sent north by Republican states

New York City’s mayor is considering an unorthodox approach to deal with the unprecedented move by Republican governors to bus migrant asylum-seekers to Democrat strongholds.

Mayor Eric Adams told a local New York news station that his team is examining the legality of acquiring temporary housing for those being sent to his city including the potential use of cruise ships docked along the Hudson River.

"We're examining everything, from the legality of using any type of cruise ship for temporary housing. We're looking at everything to see how do we deal with this," Mr Adams told CBS2.

Pressed on the use of cruise liners specifically, Mr Adams expanded: "We're looking at that. That was something that the previous administrations, the Bloomberg administration, my understanding is they looked at that during the surge and so we're looking at that as a temporary measure, not as a permanent measure.

“A permanent measure is get people into housing,” he added.

The move, if carried out, would be reminiscent of the deployment of the Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort to New York in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic — a widely cheered development that later was found to have been atrociously under-utilised at a time when city hospitals remained full.

Buses carrying dozens of migrants enticed into free rides north by often deceptive means have been arriving for weeks in New York, Chicago, Washington DC and other Democratic strongholds mostly in the northeastern US. The trips originate in Texas and now increasingly Florida, where big-name Republican governors are using the issue as a poltical stunt to pressure the Biden administration on immigration enforcement while also embarrassing Democrats ahead of crucial midterm contests.

The Republican leaders behind the busings have faced criticism for not coordinating with local governments or even aid groups to ensure that those on the buses have a place to go or food to eat once they arrive at their destinations.The response from locals in those jurisdictions has been an outpouring of support for the migrants themselves.

Texas’s governor said over the weekend that his state alone has bused more than 2,500 migrant asylum-seekers to New York City in the past few weeks alone.