Is this America's most hypocritical 'sanctuary city'? Liberal metropolis rejects more asylum seekers than any other

It bills itself as a compassionate sanctuary city, but New York City rejects more asylum seeker applications than any other city in the United States.

While the city has a right to shelter law that has housed tens of thousands of migrants over the last year, it is the toughest place to win an asylum claim, as reported by The New York Times. 

According to Human Rights First, only five percent of asylum claims were granted in NYC in 2020, compared to the national rate of 28 percent. In 2021, the city granted 7 percent. 

San Francisco, meanwhile, has the highest acceptance rate for asylum seekers - granting 50 percent of applications in 2020 and 47 percent in 2021.

Los Angeles, Newark, and Arlington, Texas, rounded up the top five cities with the highest percentage of accepted asylum applications.

It bills itself as the capital of the world, but New York City rejects more asylum seeker applications than any other city in the United States

New Orleans, Chicago, Houston and Boston also beat NYC in terms of granted asylums over the last years. 

To be granted asylum, migrants must prove they are persecuted in their home countries or have a 'well-founded fear' there due to their race, religion, nationality or political opinion.

So far this year, NYC's asylum offices, wan by the Department of Homeland Security, has received nearly 25,000 asylum claims. 

People who worked at asylum offices in NYC told the Times that they often felt 'pressure to move quickly, grill asylum seekers in search of fraud and to reject cases where asylum might be granted at another office.'

Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy for refugee programs at Human Rights First, said the New York asylum offices are a 'hostile environment.' 

Rejected cases often end up in immigration courts, part of the Justice Department; because migrants are allowed to stay in the country while their cases are resolved, they stay in limbo while a decision is made.

New York City has struggled over the last two years with a massive surge in asylum seekers.

So far this year, NYC's asylum offices, wan by the Department of Homeland Security, has received nearly 25,000 asylum claims

Migrants lined up in the East Village outside St. Brigid School looking for shelter in Manhattan

In March, Mayor Eric Adams succeeded in altering the city’s unique 'right to shelter' rule requiring it to provide temporary housing for every homeless person who asks for it.

Before the new rule came into effect, adult migrants without children were still limited to 30 days in a shelter, but they were able to immediately reapply for a new bed with no questions asked.

The city also restricts migrant families with young children to 60-day stays, but they aren’t impacted by the new rule and can still reapply without providing any justification.

Immigrant rights and homeless advocates say they’re closely monitoring the eviction process, which impacts some 15,000 migrant adults. The city shelter system currently houses about 65,000 migrants, but many of those are families with kids. 

Migrants cross into the US from Mexico, the day after President Biden signed an executive order to change border policy on June 5 in California

Adams, a Democrat, has pushed back at critics who have called the city’s increasingly restrictive migrant shelter rules inhumane and haphazardly rolled out, saying the city simply can’t keep housing migrants indefinitely. 

New York City has provided temporary housing to nearly 200,000 migrants since the spring of 2022, with more than a thousand new arrivals coming to the city each week, he noted.

'People said it’s inhumane to put people out during the wintertime, so now they say it’s inhumane to do it in the summertime,' Adams said. 'There’s no good time. There’s no good time.'

Meanwhile president Joe Biden has signed an executive order to shut the border when crossings reach 2,500 a day and to restrict asylum for migrants coming from Mexico, and blamed Donald Trump for scuttling a legislative solution.

The plan ripped as an election 'stunt' by critics could still allow up to 1.75 millions to come into the United States.

Biden touted the new order in remarks at the White House, where he blamed Trump for the collapse of a bipartisan immigration measure in Congress.