As New York’s Migrant Crisis Eases, Trump’s Deportation Threat Looms

After a two-year influx of asylum seekers, New York City leaders are cautiously optimistic that the migrant crisis has begun to subside.

Fewer migrants are arriving from the southern border. Even more are leaving the city’s strained shelter system each week, potentially paving the way for some of the shelters to close.

And on top of the slowdown, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threats of mass deportations have injected a large dose of uncertainty into the situation.

If the past two years were defined by how Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, managed to accommodate more than 223,000 new migrants, the next four could well be focused on how the city navigates Mr. Trump’s deportation efforts.

The situation could quickly turn fraught amid the specter of immigration authorities ramping up efforts to detain undocumented immigrants in New York, a so-called sanctuary city with laws that limit its cooperation with federal officials to deport noncitizens.

How might the Trump administration affect migrants?

Mr. Trump indicated last week that he intended to utilize the U.S. military to help carry out his plans for mass deportations, though such a large-scale operation would face numerous legal, logistical and financial hurdles.