Mayor Eric Adams has declared a state of emergency over the ongoing influx of migrants, saying New York City is reaching its “limit” on a crisis he estimates would cost taxpayers $1 billion by the end of the year.

More than 17,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city since the spring. Under the city’s sweeping, decades-old right-to-shelter mandate, the shelter system must provide a bed to anyone who seeks it.

The announcement represented the latest efforts of an administration struggling to respond to a political tactic mounted by Republican governors, who have sought to challenge President Joe Biden’s immigration policies by putting thousands of migrants on buses headed to Democratic cities, testing so-called sanctuary cities.