Senator Says US Migration Crisis Will Destroy New York City, Create Financial Tsunami

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The surge of undocumented migrants arriving in New York City will destroy the city and create a financial crisis, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday.

"New York City will experience a financial tsunami, the migrant crisis will destroy New York City," Graham said during a news conference.

To date, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has transported some 50,000 migrants to Democratic-led so-called 'sanctuary cities' throughout the United States, including 15,300 to New York City and 12,000 to Washington, DC. Other cities include Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles.

Graham added that he supports Abbott's decision to bus migrants to sanctuary cities as a means to pressure Democrats to take action to address the crisis on the US southern border.

A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) source confirmed to Sputnik this week that the total number of migrants unlawfully crossing into the United States on the US-Mexico border already hit a new record for fiscal year 2023, reaching nearly 2.4 million.

The figure marks the third consecutive year the Biden administration has seen a record number of migrants illegally crossing the US southern border - 1.7 million in 2021 and 2.3 million in 2022.

US media reported last week that some 2.3 million migrants have come over the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2023, which ends in October.