As New York City scrambles to take in a growing number of migrants who crossed the southern border, Mayor Adams is — after months of haranguing federal officials and Republicans in Congress over the nation’s immigration policies — finally deploying a plan to manage the crisis in which the city finds itself.

“While our city may be the face of the asylum-seeker crisis, it is not a crisis we can solve on our own,” Mr. Adams said in a letter to New Yorkers accompanying the plan. “A comprehensive response from all levels of government — especially from our state and federal partners — is needed.”

As Mr. Adams announced his new plans, President Biden’s administration is reportedly considering reinstating a Trump-era policy of detaining migrant families in an effort to curb illegal border crossings.

The administration stopped detaining families in 2021. Currently, families are released and given court dates. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, refused to comment on the considerations during a briefing Tuesday.

New York’s new initiative will focus on providing asylum seekers with long-term housing, helping them find jobs, and providing legal support. It will be managed by a new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations.

Faith-based organizations will be stepping in to bolster the city’s capacity for temporary housing for migrants and the homeless. The city will also be helping asylum-seekers relocate to their final destinations or find housing in the city and state.

The mayor called for a change in federal policy that would allow for asylum seekers to work legally in America. Currently, asylum seekers are only able to work after being granted asylum, with the application process taking about half a year following arrival.

Mr. Adams also announced that the city would be offering literacy programs and educational programs focused on workplace rights and anti-fraud precautions, while connecting new arrivals with established immigrants.

The legal support will be managed by a new Asylum Seeker Legal Assistance Network that will centralize information for asylum-seekers and inform them of important dates concerning their cases. 

“Our city’s practical and compassionate approach to the asylum-seeker crisis will set the standard for how we welcome those fleeing violence and hardship,” Mr. Adams said.

New York City has faced a large influx of migrants in recent months since a group of Republican governors began sending buses full of asylum seekers to the city, and other major American cities, in the spring.

“Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city — welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality,” Governor Abbott wrote in August. “Talk is cheap. When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk.”

Since then, New York City has been scrambling to manage the influx, with the city’s shelters already stressed from the ongoing housing crisis.

At the beginning of March, there were nearly 80,000 people taking refuge in New York City’s shelters, a 77 percent increase since the beginning of 2022 that the city says is “due in large part to the influx of newcomers.”

Alongside the new measures, Mr. Adams is also calling for a variety of federal measures, including an expedited process for allowing asylum seekers to work, a strategy to distribute arrivals around the country, and a “revamped immigration system.”

He also called for a declaration of a federal emergency around the border, an unusual move for a Democratic politician from a state far from the southern border.

As part of a revamped federal policy, the plan calls on the federal government to reimburse state and local governments for money already spent on managing the crisis.

The New York City Office of Emergency Management estimates that the city spends an average of $363 a day on each asylum-seeker household in the city shelters, with the crisis estimated to cost the city $1.4 billion by the end of this fiscal year.

Border security and immigration has risen to prominence again as a hot-button political issue, with 2022 seeing some 2.76 million crossings by undocumented immigrants, breaking the previous annual record by more than a million.

This record-breaking year was driven by sharp increases in the numbers of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans, according to data collected by Customs and Border Protection.

The issue has also attracted the attention of House Republicans, including Speaker McCarthy, who visited the border in February, and President Biden, who visited in January.