Cities seek help for migrant surge in US

Amid requests from mayors of five large cities in the United States for the federal government to provide $5 billion to deal with a migrant surge, the Texas Senate has approved $1.5 billion for border wall construction and the policing of a subdivision suspected of housing undocumented migrants.

At the end of October, mayors from Denver, Chicago, New York, Houston and Los Angeles wrote to President Joe Biden to seek a meeting with him to discuss the surging number of migrants arriving in those cities, with the mayors reportedly seeking $5 billion to deal with the issue.

Biden has asked Congress for $14 billion to hire more border agents, install new inspection machines to detect fentanyl drugs and increase staffing to process asylum cases as part of the $105 billion package.

Only $1.4 billion would be set for local government to provide shelter and services to migrants, an amount that is far short of what is needed, the letter from the mayors indicated.

"Right now, Denver is spending almost $2 million a week on shelter, New York City has surpassed $1.7 billion in spending and Chicago has spent over $320 million," the letter stated.

Last week, the White House set up a meeting with the mayors to discuss how to manage an increasing number of migrants but Biden himself did not attend the meeting. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Homeland Security Department officials talked to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

"I had a good series of conversations," Johnston, who led the coalition, said.

The letter said that more than 75 percent of the migrants in their shelters will not be eligible for work under current policy.

Those who are eligible and have applied for employment authorization documents have to wait for six months or longer because US Citizenship and Immigration Services lacks the capacity to process applications in a timely manner.

Agencies contributed to this story.