This Is Your Crisis Too: Dimon Joins NY CEOs In Letter To Biden On Asylum Seekers

After a flood of more than 100,000 asylum seekers descended upon New York City, more than 120 CEOs, including JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, BlackRock's Larry Fink and Citigroup's Jane Fraser have penned a letter to President Biden and Congress urging federal assistance for the problem they created.

"The situation is overwhelming the resources not only of the border region but of city and state governments across the nation," reads the open letter from Partnership for New York City. "Immigration policies and control of our country’s border are clearly a federal responsibility; state and local governments have no standing in this matter."

The cost for sheltering and care of the migrants could exceed $12 billion by July 2025, jeopardizing the city’s ability to provide goods and services to its more than 8 million residents, Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this month.

New York has previously called on other municipalities around the state to take on more responsibility for housing and feeding new arrivals. Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have said the federal government should mount a comprehensive national response that would provide migrants a path out of New York’s care. -Bloomberg

"We urge you to take immediate action to better control the border and the process of asylum, and provide relief to the cities and states that are bearing the burdens posed by the influx of asylum seekers," reads the letter, which was also signed by the co-chairmen of the Partnership for New York City, Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla and Tishman Speyer Properties LP CEO Rob Speyer.

The city says it's trying to find many of the new arrivals jobs despite the fact that they're unable to work legally until their immigration cases work their way through the system.

According to officials, they're trying to find migrants construction jobs and access to NYC identification cards, as well as connections to legal clinics to fill out authorization forms - but state and city leaders want the Biden administration to help out - including expediting the work authorization process.

"The federal government can expedite work authorizations through executive actions like granting and extending Temporary Protected Status, specifically for countries like Venezuela, which constitute a significant portion of the arriving population and where the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate," wrote Gov. Hochul in a separate letter to Biden released last week.

Meanwhile, residents have been protesting the housing of migrants to various areas of the city.

Antifa, no surprise, is encouraging the migrant crisis.

Of note, Hochul has already spent $1.5 billion and deployed nearly 2,000 National Guard members. while asylum seekers continue to cause visible disruptions - even lining up near Wall Street offices.

The Biden administration's response has been, to put it mildly, lackluster. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas threw a curveball by questioning New York’s handling of the crisis, offering as an alternative federal sites that are practically in another timezone from the city's core. Essentially, the Biden administration has turned this into a game of hot potato with lives and resources hanging in the balance.

That said, as the NY Times notes, Wall Street execs are huge Democratic donors, so maybe they can call in a few favors?