EXCLUSIVE: ‘Nobody asked them to come here!’ Migrant in NYC blasts other ungrateful border crossers who’ve snubbed offer of $20.8M tent shelters and returned to Manhattan HOTEL
A Bolivian migrant has called out fellow asylum seekers who refused to stay in a newly built $20.8 million tent shelter as hotel rooms in New York City ran out.
Gov. Eric Adams on Sunday bused dozens of migrants to the makeshift tent facility at the Floyd Bennett Center in Brooklyn — in the city’s latest effort to keep pace with a wave of asylum seekers that has reached more than 139,000 people since last spring see it arrive.
But many families immediately got back on the bus after seeing the facility, and some were at the Roosevelt Hotel on Monday asking to be sent to another shelter.
The 21-year-old woman from Bolivia — who has been at the shelter on Randall’s Island for a month — said the conditions in the tent facilities are clueless, but she doesn’t understand the migrants who are complaining.
“They say they want a room, but no one has asked if they could come here,” she told DailyMail.com on Monday.
Images shared with DailyMail.com show a bus carrying migrants sent to the makeshift tent facility at the Floyd Bennett Center in Brooklyn on Sunday
The Roosevelt Hotel has become the city’s new Ellis Island as hundreds of migrants pass through every day for various reasons, mainly to register for shelter
Several families without coats or winter clothing were loaded onto a bus from The Roosevelt Hotel to another shelter on Monday
Previously, only single adults were sent to tent shelters and hotel rooms were reserved for families. Sunday marked the first time the city sent families into tent-like shelters.
DailyMail.com spoke to a Venezuelan family who were sent to the Floyd Bennett Center on Sunday but refused to stay, claiming the facility was not suitable for children.
“It was like being in a migrant detention centre, the beds were cots and it just wasn’t a place for children, so we came straight back,” the Venezuelan mother who asked not to be named, told DailyMail.com outside the Roosevelt Hotel.
“We didn’t even know where we were going… the workers here who were so friendly didn’t even know where we were going, some even apologized to us today,” she added.
The family returned to the Roosevelt Hotel and was moved to the Kings Hotel in Brooklyn, one of dozens of hotels converted into migrant shelters.
However, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told DailyMail.com that these migrant families were allowed to return to their previous shelters because they were already staying there and their children had gone to school.
In the future, those who do not wish to stay in their assigned shelter will be asked to sign a waiver stating that they agree to no longer be under the care of NYC, which has a right to shelter in place law.
The mayor’s office said, “With more than 65,600 migrants still in our care today, and thousands more arriving every week, we have exhausted every possible corner of New York City and are simply running out of good options.” to receive migrants.
DailyMail.com spoke to a Venezuelan family who were sent to the Floyd Bennett Center (pictured) on Sunday but refused to stay, claiming the facility was not suitable for children
Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, part of a national park in southeastern New York City, is expected to seat 2,000 people
“This is why we continue to call for meaningful assistance and a decompression strategy from our state and federal partners. No municipality should have to manage a national crisis almost entirely alone. It’s not fair to asylum seekers and it’s not fair to old New Yorkers.”
Several families without coats or winter clothing were loaded onto a bus from The Roosevelt Hotel to another shelter on Monday. Workers on the ground declined to say where the migrants were going.
The Roosevelt Hotel has become the city’s new Ellis Island, where hundreds of migrants pass through every day for various reasons, mainly to register for shelter.
Many people were at The Roosevelt on Monday to renew their shelters after the city instituted a 30-day limit for individuals and a 60-day limit for families.
The Democrats’ office said it would start sending 60-day notices to migrant families living in shelters, though they could reapply for housing if they can’t find a new place to live.
However, DailyMail.com has learned that migrant families only started receiving the notices two weeks ago.
‘It’s not fair that those who have been here for a year are not kicked out. It should be those who have been here longer and should be sent to (the new shelter),” the Venezuelan mother said.
More than 120,000 migrants have arrived in the city over the past 18 months, with more than 60,000 still in the city’s reception centers
Migrants from Africa, Mexico and Venezuela line up outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan in August. The hotel has been given the name ‘Ellis Island’ because this is where the migrants are processed
DailyMail.com spoke to a Venezuelan migrant who wanted to go alone with Jose Manuel, who said he had not received any notice about a restricted stay. He and his family have been staying at the hotel for nine months.
DailyMail.com has contacted the mayor’s office for comment on this story.
Many of the Venezuelans at the Roosevelt Hotel said they had initially migrated to other South American countries such as Chile and Peru, but had not received any assistance from the governments there.
They decided to cross the dangerous Darien Gap that divides South and Central America to make their way to the US-Mexico border in search of better economic opportunities.
Like the Bolivian migrant, Jose Manuel said some migrants are “ungrateful,” claiming that migrants at The Roosevelt Hotel are divided between those who want to work and those who don’t.
Jose Manuel said he supports the deportation of ‘any migrant who breaks the law’
Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, part of a national park in southeastern New York City, is expected to seat 2,000 people.
It’s the mayor’s latest attempt to provide relief to the city’s shelter system and finances as it grapples with more than 139,000 international migrants who have come to New York, many without housing or the legal ability to work. More than 60,000 migrants are currently living in city shelters, according to his office.
Adams estimates that the city will spend $12 billion over the next three years to accommodate the influx, setting up large-scale emergency shelters, renting out hotels and providing various government services to migrants.