(WENY) -- Nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the Spring of 2022. While asylum seekers are granted permission to come to the U.S. to await their hearings, new numbers show the concrete jungle is running out of space to provide resources and shelter. 

The rise in numbers of people crossing the U.S. Mexico border comes after the expiration of Title 42 in May 2023 – a public health law that was intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t long before the state of Texas and other surrounding states began busing migrants to the sanctuary city. 

Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of Immigration and Law practice for Cornell University, says the influx of migrants has cost the city over a billion dollars to house them, and as result, led Mayor Eric Adams to consider counties outside of the city.  

“It became clear that some of these migrants were going to be coming to Upstate New York, those counties and other counties, including Cortland County and Onondaga County, issued local ordinances forbidding New York from sending those migrants to Upstate New York.” 

The proposal of migrants in those rural areas has raised concerns for county officials with local ordinances now in litigation. Thirty counties placed executive orders in June to bar hotels and motels from housing migrants on their county border.  

In turn, Adams filed a lawsuit to “put an end to this xenophobic bigotry and ensure our state acts as one as we work together to manage this humanitarian crisis fairly and humanely, as we have done from the beginning and as we will continue to do.” However, Chairwoman Martha Sauerbrey of Tioga County says her community is facing a housing shortage. 

“We do not have shelters in Tioga County. We have a housing shortage for low income and for shelters. We often receive homeless people from outside counties who are perhaps on social services, and they will call our social services and say, ‘we don't have housing for these people can you take one or two?’ Our shelters are full. We have no place to house them” 

Tioga County was among one of those sued counties who issued a state of emergency order in May of 2023. Sauerbrey says she did not take Adams statement to heart. 

“We know that Upstate is entirely different. It is very rural. It is very conservative. It is very quiet” adding “I took it personally for a moment then and I said no, I'm not going to take it personally. He just does not understand. He knows what he knows. And he does not understand Upstate.” 

Sauerbrey emphasized her executive orders is not meant to ban migrants from entering the county, but rather avoid hotels and motels to house migrants without the proper accomodations to care for them.

"[The executive order] doesn't say no migrants, no people from other countries are [not] welcome here. It does not say that. It just says we do not want the hotels and motels to set up a contract with New York City and or their non profit to do business, you know, but they can get a license. They can talk to us if they are reached out by the city of New York or any other group."

Congress has not answered some of the demands officials have asked for, such as more money to be allocated towards resources for the asylum seekers, or as Gov. Kathy Hochul suggested, expedited work permits. In recent days, Hochul has been asked to take more action in alleviating the crisis, but Professor Yale-Loerh says the recent move was to take a closer look at the language in the constitution.  

“The legal issue is whether there's a provision in the New York state constitution that requires not just the city of New York, but the whole state to provide a right to shelter. And that issue is complicated and it's before a judge now and we'll see how the judge rules.” 

While Sauerbrey says her community would welcome newcomers, they would also be skeptical due to the lack of information being shared. 

“You get no information [of] who they are, if they're men, women, if there's children, if children need schooling, if they're immunized, if they speak English,” she adds “Who are these people? What are they going to do? Where are they from? Can they work? How do you know if they can work? It's fear of the unknown.” 

But just 30 miles out from Tioga County, Chairwoman Sarah Black of Tompkins County says her county is a possible option to house migrants. 

“If asylum seekers were to come to Tompkins County, I know that we can at this point, with the resources that we have manage around 50 people. I don't think that we would be able to manage at a larger scale. And my understanding is that there would also be financial contributions.” 

Black says as of recently, there has been a population drop in surrounding areas, and a possible solution her colleagues should consider is welcoming migrants for the dropping numbers. 

“We're always talking about thinking outside of the box, like, this is a real solution, and you have a group that so desperately want to live in the United States and so desperately want to work and be part of our community.” 

Professor Stephen Yale-Loerh suggests a better action plan needs to be implemented across the country overall.

“We need to both have persuaded Congress to appropriate more money to help states who have these immigrants. And we need to persuade state legislators that this money should be appropriated from the state to deal with this. And we need to do it at a state level rather than a county by county or New York city versus upstate level.” 

Gov. Kathy Hochul's attorney sent a twelve-page letter Aug. 15 outlining the efforts New York State has made since the initial start of the crisis and the failure of communication from the Adams administration. 

At this time, the Adams administration is still reviewing the letter.