Google maps creates label for New York City's new migrant camp

Google Maps has created a surprising label for the location where New York City Mayor Eric Adams has decided to house asylum seekers in the city.

Rather than reading ‘Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center’ – as Adams called the soon to be opened center on Randalls Island – the website has the facility tagged as ‘Adams Tent City.’

The tag appears when navigating over the northwest coast of the remote island between Manhattan and Queens, but is only visible when zoomed in to about 100ft above ground level.

The label even auto fills with an address in the search bar, which takes viewers right to the location. It is unclear whether the tag was added by Google or by a user having fun with location features.

On the ground and in person, the label is not far off the mark. Adams has set up a number of massive tents on the island, each of which are filled with hundreds of cots, couches, and rows of folding tables and chairs.

On Tuesday, Mayor Adams tweeted out pictures from inside the facility and a video of him touring the inside of the tents.

‘Spent last night at Randall’s Island inspecting our facility to care for asylum seekers,’ he wrote. ‘Care is the key word.’

‘We’re providing medical care, places to sleep, connection to legal services, laundry and more,’ he said. ‘We didn’t ask for this crisis but we’re meeting the moment.’

Adams announced plans to open the center just a month ago, and characterized it as a modern day Ellis Island. ‘More than 100 years ago, Ellis Island opened its doors to welcome in those ‘yearning to breathe free,” he said.

‘Now, more than ever, it’s clear that we are again dealing with a humanitarian crisis created by human hands. While other leaders have abdicated their moral duty to support arriving asylum seekers, New York City refuses to do so.’

The facility is capable of housing up to 500 migrants at a time. It remains unclear when the facility will open, with the city saying only that it will ‘soon’ as of October 12.

The project has been mired in controversy since its announcement, with critics decrying it as a waste of taxpayer dollars that New Yorkers sorely need.

Construction on the project originally began at a location in the Bronx, but that work was scrapped after ten days due to water drainage issues and the facility was moved to Randalls Island.

Adams has refused to comment on how much money that location change cost the city.

‘Once we get the exact cost, we will give it to you. We don’t do anything prematurely so you can say, ‘Eric lied on the cost,” he said in a defensive press conference earlier this month. ‘So, we’re going to give it once we get it.’

No matter the excuses, many said the project has been needlessly wasteful.

‘It’s sickening to see the way the city and the federal government are wasting taxpayer money to deal with problems they created that are totally avoidable,’ said US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, according to the New York Post.

‘It’s frustrating to see the way money is thrown away by the city, state and federal governments at a time when we are dealing with budget issues, a $31 trillion debt and an economy where New Yorkers and Americans are struggling to get by,’ she said.

Controversy around the migrant center comes as thousands of asylum seekers have begun arriving in New York City, prompting Mayor Adams to declare a state of emergency and request billions of dollars in federal aid.

About 1,800 asylum seekers from Latin America arrived in NYC in just one weekend in early October, just as Adams asked for $1billion in federal funding to deal with the crisis. 

‘Those numbers are unbelievable – 1,800,’ Adams said over Columbus Day. ‘We need every level of government to participate in dealing with this crisis that we are facing.’

‘You know, over just the last few days to receive those large numbers, it’s a strain on our system and we have to make sure we get the support that we need.’

As of Columbus Day, nearly 20,000 migrants had made their way to the Big Apple from border states, according to NY Daily News.

The recorded number stands at 19,200, according to Adams’ officials, however it is likely even more than that as this is just the number of migrants who have come through the shelter system in the five boroughs.

Adams warned that the Randalls Island facility is likely just the first of its kind to come to the city, and predicted that there would soon be emergency shelters in ‘every community’ in the city, and they should expect to see them ‘without warning.’

Adams noted that every borough would be ‘impacted’ by the crisis during a news conference at Yankees Stadium in the Bronx on October 12.

‘Every community is going to see asylum-seekers,’ Adams said.

‘This is a citywide crisis and all of us are going to be impacted and Staten Island is going to be impacted like the other four boroughs,’ he added.

The mayor has noted that the city’s shelters are already near 100 percent capacity, with about 61,000 people in the system, 20,000 of which are children.

‘It would make the President look bad’: Why Biden administration ‘pressured Dem mayor of El Paso NOT to declare state of emergency over migrant crisis’

Politicians in Texas claim that the Biden administration has pressured them to avoid declaring a state of emergency in relation to the southern border crisis because the optics aren’t good, a new report reveals.

A council member in El Paso told The New York Post that Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser admitted during a private phone call last month that he was directed by the administration not to declare an emergency in his jurisdiction.

‘He told me the White House asked him not to,’ Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez said.

She said that Leeser claimed he would defy Biden’s wishes ‘if things got worse.’

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered more than 2 million migrants illegally crossing the southern border in Fiscal Year 2022, according to the latest figures from August. Numbers for September, the last month of the fiscal year, have not yet been released.

At least three members of El Paso’s City Council have urged Mayor Leeser to issue an emergency declaration as thousands of migrants continue to fill the city’s shelters and overflow into local hotels, sources told the Post.

Leeser said in a statement: ‘I don’t bow to pressure from any side.’ 

Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas’ 23rd congressional district – which includes border towns near El Paso – said he has heard similar accounts from city officials about pressure from the administration and the White House has done similar things in ‘other parts of my district.’

‘It is a sleight of hand what the administration is doing — pressuring the local government to not issue a declaration of emergency, to say as if everything is going OK,’ he said to the Post.

When a state of emergency is declared, cities and counties become eligible for state and federal funding, specifically to allow for the opening of additional shelters to house migrants.

Leeser, however, has praised the federal government for providing ‘critical’ assistance to El Paso – even though the city’s website shows it has only received $2 million in federal reimbursements out of the $8 million spent in the fallout from the migrant crisis.

ElPasomatters.org reported in September that the city spent as much as $300,000 a day to shelter, feed and transport immigrants.

Leeser said during a City Council meeting on September 27 that Democratic Texas Representative Veronica Escobar had urged him not to issue an emergency declaration.

‘The White House has asked, at this point, for us not to do that and they’ll continue to work with us and continue to give us … money through [the] Federal Emergency Management Agency,’ the mayor said at the time.

Migration continue to break records at the southern border – and governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida have received a slew of criticism from transporting asylum-seekers to northern Democratic cities to help ease pressure on border communities.   

Biden’s border chief sleeps in meetings, skips going to the White House and badmouths colleagues while migrant crossings have hit historic highs, damning report claims

President Joe Biden’s border chief skips White House gatherings, falls asleeps in meetings and badmouths his colleagues, his critics told Politico in a damning report published on Monday. 

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus was charged with caring more about reforming the agency’s culture – including charges of racism and violence – instead of addressing the influx of migrants along the southern border.

Magnus also sought to blame other federal agencies for the high number of border crossings, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. CBP secures the border while ICE is responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented people that cross over.

‘He’s not in the game,’ one of the five administration officials cited as sources in the story told the news outlet. ‘Every time there’s a meeting and he’s in it, we’ll get to a conclusion and Magnus will have some sidebar issue that he wants to raise and we’re all like ‘What the f*** is that about?’

Mangus defended his tenure, saying in a statement: ‘I’ve always been someone who aggressively questions the status quo, looks for ways to do things better, and engages directly with the public and workforce.’

‘In any organization, some people are threatened by this. They don’t like it when someone questions ‘why’ certain things must be done the way they’ve always been done. I’m not here to back down to the predictable challenges from those people,’ he noted.

He explained the charges that he falls asleep in meetings as side effects of his multiple sclerosis, the neurological condition he was diagnosed with 15 years ago.

In April 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Magnus to the position. He was confirmed by the Senate on a 50-47 vote. He was sworn in on December 13, 2021.

He was previously chief of police in Tucson, Arizona; Fargo, North Dakota; and Richmond, California. 

He came into the job during a record time for border crossings. 

Federal authorities arrested more than 2.493 million immigrants during the 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. That far exceeded last year’s record of more than 1.7 million arrests. 

Magnus’ defenders point out there are legitimate culture problems within the agency.

Between 2005 and 2012, more than 2,000 CBP employees were arrested for misconduct, according to the Government Accountability Office. 

But the record number of border crossings has become a political hot potato for the Biden administration and for Democrats running in competitive races on the Southern border, such as Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who is seeking re-election. 

Republicans are using the issue to bash Biden this election year.

And some GOP politicians have paid to send migrants from the border to Democratic strongholds such as New York, Martha’s Vineyard, Delaware and Illinois.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has sent a planeload of migrants to Martha Vineyard and is planning on flights to Delaware and Illinois.

Those would be the second and third times this year that DeSantis has flown migrants to liberal bastions.

And Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sent busloads of illegal immigrants from his state to cities like Chicago, New York City and Washington DC. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has slammed DeSantis for using migrants as ‘political pawns.’

‘They are fleeing persecution, only to be used as a political pawn by the Florida governor,’ she said.

She added of DeSantis: ‘His only goal is – as he’s made it really clear – is to create chaos, and use immigrants fleeing communism as political pawns.’