Mayors of several major U.S. cities, including Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner, recently sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on him to meet with them to discuss the influx of asylum seekers arriving from the border.
The letter, written by the Office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and dated Friday, May 12 (the day after Title 42 ended), was co-signed by Turner and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock joined the three original letter authors just days later, urging the action from Biden.
All mayors involved in the request for a sit-down with Biden at this printing are African American.
“The City of Houston is considering options to provide support, but lacks sufficient resources to meet the overwhelming needs of the migrant community,” Turner recently said. “Currently we are waiting to see what resources the federal government will provide before determining how and if we can assist. In the meantime, we are grateful for our nonprofit community and partners like Catholic Charities and Casa Juan Diego that are receiving a limited number of buses, but are also equally under resourced and overwhelmed. We hope the federal government can provide the needed resources for us to create a structured plan to fully assist.”
“This is a matter of grave importance to us as we are experiencing a dramatic influx of asylum seekers and anticipate even more (after the end of Title 42),” the letter explained. “Our cities have been hard at work doing more than our fair share and we need continued federal governmental assistance.”
Here’s the letter from the mayors to Biden:
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