New York City has declared a state of emergency in response to an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers into the city, mostly from the southern border of the US.

Mayor Eric Adams issued an executive order to formally direct all relevant agencies in the city to coordinate their efforts to respond to the asylum seeker humanitarian crisis and to construct temporary humanitarian relief centres.

The state of emergency will last for a month and may be extended.

Mayor Adams also called for emergency federal and state funding to handle the continued influx of asylum seekers, including legislation allowing asylum seekers to work, a decompression strategy at the border, a coordinated effort to move asylum seekers to other cities, emergency financial relief and immigration reform.

The shelter system in New York City is now operating at near 100-per cent capacity accommodating more than 61,000 people, and the city would have more than 100,000 asylum seekers next year if current trend continues, according to Adams.

“That’s far more than the system was ever designed to handle. This is unsustainable. The city is going to run out of funding for other priorities,” Mayor Adams said.

More than 17,000 asylum seekers, mostly from South America, have been bused directly to New York City from the southern border since April, he said.

To accommodate the asylum seekers, the city has contracted 42 hotels as emergency shelters with one humanitarian emergency response and relief centre under construction on Randall’s Island.

It is also working with the New York Governor’s office on identifying additional locations for relief centres and staffing resources.

Mayor Adams said New York City expects to spend at least $US1 billion by the end of the US fiscal year, which starts on October 1, on the migrant crisis.

He blamed political motivation and lack of coordination for the man-made humanitarian crisis.

The crisis has been fuelled in part by the Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and Florida who have been sending asylum seekers on buses to Democratic-run states – without prior warning or coordination – to draw attention to the rising number of migrants crossing into the United States through its border with Mexico.

The Republican governors blame President Biden’s immigration policies for the rise in arrivals at the border and say their campaign is necessary in order to share the burden of hosting the asylum seekers

So far, more than 13,000 migrants have been affected by the Republicans’ campaign.

Texas says it has bussed more than 8,000 migrants to Washington and another 2,500 more to New York City since April.

More than 600 migrants from Texas also have been sent to Chicago since late August, the state said.

Arizona has bussed 2,000 migrants to the nation’s capital, according to local media reports.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also took credit for flying approximately 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this month.

According to officials and volunteers, many of the migrants are from Venezuela, which has seen a mass exodus in recent years amid dire socio-economic conditions and a rise in violence.

About a month ago, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency in the US capital due to the arrival of thousands of migrants bused from the southern states of Texas and Arizona.