NYC making it easier for migrants to get benefits, housing: report

New York City officials are making it easier for illegal aliens to acquire a city residency ID card, in turn making it easier for them to obtain housing and free healthcare, according to reports.

City Council members passed a change backed by Mayor Eric Adams that opens up 23 additional types of IDs that immigrants can provide to obtain a New York City residency card.

The New York Post reported that some of the examples of identification that immigrants can provide include an expired driver’s license; documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and about 100 other forms of identification to obtain an IDNYC card.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration first introduced the city IDs in 2015 to help migrants access free healthcare, enroll in school, open accounts at banks and more.

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The program is open to all New Yorkers who are 10 and older, no matter what their immigration status is.

To date, nearly 1.7 million people have acquired the ID card. Last year there were 132,054 IDs handed out, while the previous year there were 127,859, according to the city.

Not everyone thinks it is a good idea to ease the process for obtaining a city ID. In fact, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told The Post it was a “terrible idea.”

“To provide a legitimate government ID to individuals in the country illegally then gives them access to government buildings and services is just another incentive [to come here],” she told the publication. “Most disturbing is that there is no vetting, no process to ensure documents provided to prove identity are not fake and, to boot, they destroy these documents that could be helpful in an investigation.”

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Still, a representative from the city told The Post they vigorously vet applicant backgrounds for criminal issues.

In an Op-Ed published in Harlem World Magazine, Adams highlighted his administration’s accomplishments with immigration.

“New York City is a city built by immigrants, and we are not just stronger because of our diversity – we are the greatest city on the globe because of it,” he said.

Beginning in 2022, the city faced what he referred to as an “unprecedented influx of asylum seekers,” which his administration tackled head-on.

“Thanks to our efforts, over 189,100 of the 232,600 of the migrants – or 81 percent – who requested services from the city in the last three years have taken the next step in their journeys toward self-sufficiency,” Adams said, adding that his administration’s support to asylum seekers while they pursued the American Dream resulted in 84 % of the adults receiving or applying for work authorization.

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Adams also highlighted that the city purchased over 53,000 tickets to help those seeking asylum reach their “preferred destinations,” reducing the long-term costs of keeping them in the city for taxpayers.

Adams announced last week that the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Manhattan will be shutting down in the next few months.

The hotel, which was converted into a migrant shelter with about 1,000 rooms, has processed over 173,000 migrants since May 2023. It was set up as a migrant shelter in response to the wave of migrants that began coming to the city in 2022 in search of asylum.

The Roosevelt Hotel’s shelter, along with the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center located on the site, will now be closed by June, a source told the New York Post.

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“While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said in a statement last week.

This week, he continued to address the city’s efforts.

The New York City Department of Small Business Services connected the migrant population to hundreds of job opportunities, he noted, and other parts of his administration continued to search for ways to assist new arrivals, providing things from direct outreach and resource fairs to onsite English as a Second Language courses at shelters.

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“Our actions have shown an entire nation what can be accomplished when we lead with compassion and resourcefulness,” Adams said. “Because of the work we have done, we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before. We are all New Yorkers together: anything that affects one of us, affects us all. I have faith in our great city to continue to be a beacon of hope, and a place where people from every corner of the world can build a new life.”

Fox News’ Mike Lee contributed to this report.