The city in recent weeks has stepped up its push to send asylum seekers out of town.

The practice known as re-ticketing has always been an option for migrants in the city’s care, but the option has become a growing focus of city officials as the city continues to grapple with the influx of newcomers.  

What You Need To Know

  • Re-ticketing allows any asylum seekers to ask for a ticket to travel to another city

  • The city has recently opened a re-ticketing center in downtown Manhattan in order to focus efforts of getting migrants travel to another destination

  • Mayor Adams on Tuesday defended the policy arguing it is cost-effective as less migrants in the city's care means less costs for the city

  • Officials said on Tuesday that more than 130,000 migrants have come to the city, with more than 65,000 in the city's care

Mayor Adams said the migrant crisis is going to cost the city billions and re-ticketing is a cost saving strategy.

“What we did is create an option for people because if we give you a $200 ticket somewhere to go to a place where you have support that is not having taxpayers’ pay for you to spend that same amount every night taking care of you,” Adams said.

The mayor has estimated the cost of the migrant crisis to cost $5 billion in the current fiscal year. He has repeatedly said the crisis could top $12 billion by 20-25.

“It’s a smart, cost-effective way of getting a win-win. You go to the destination you want, and taxpayers are not keeping up the tab for this,” said Adams.

Recently, the city opened a re ticketing center in Downtown Manhattan where any asylum seeker can ask for a ticket to anywhere they want, including out of the country.

“The re-ticketing is allowing them to go to locations that they want. Some people actually want to go back to their country of origin because they realize when they come to New York you’re not automatically going to be staying at a 5-star hotel, you’re not automatically going to find a job,” Adams said. 

Re-ticketing is part of a larger plan by the city to get migrants out of the city’s care.

Other recent policies have included shelter limits of 30 and 60-days for single adults and migrant families with children.

“When we give you 30-days, that means you should be thinking about what you want to do at the end of those 30-days,” Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said. “You used the word deterrence, but I think I do want people to know what’s happening in New York City and that we’re out of space. And that it is not an unlimited amount of time that you can come here.”

The city has opened more than 200 emergency shelters, including over a dozen large-scale relief centers. The most recent one at Floyd Bennett Field will house migrant families with children.

Adams said the re-ticketing is purely a voluntary option.

“It’s not trying to be misleading, it’s not trying to be harmful. It’s allowing people for the first time [to] sit down and say, do you want to go somewhere else? And giving them the option of assisting them in doing so because some of them don’t have the financial means,” said Adams.

Officials said on Tuesday that more than 130,000 migrants have come to the city with more than 65,000 in the city’s care.

City officials added that about one out of every four migrants who come to the city immediately request a ticket somewhere else.