New York City has a huge new red light district thanks to the arrival of hordes of female Venezuelan migrants working as prostitutes, Mayor Eric Adams said.
Roosevelt Avenue in the Corona neighborhood of Queens is filled with Venezuelan migrants offering sex services in the open air, the so-called “Market of Sweethearts.”
In recent weeks, we’ve seen sex workers walking the streets during the day, with many aggressively soliciting, even as children come home from school or during lunch breaks, as reported by Pix 11.
Previously, the Bronx was home to the Big Apple’s highest concentration of sex workers.
Mayor Adams said Tuesday that the situation is just one of many ways the migrant crisis is impacting the city, which has received more than 120,000 new asylum seekers since last spring.
When asked by reporters about the open-air sex market, Adams was alerted to the situation by local newspapers and visited the area himself, confirming that ‘illegal’ activities take place in public at all hours of the day and night. .
The Democrat said that according to the city’s “intel,” many of the sex workers are Venezuelan women who recently arrived in New York. It is unclear whether these women were sex workers at home and whether they sold their bodies of their own free will, or whether they were trafficked and forcibly trafficked.
New York City’s red light district is being fueled by the migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams said
Sex workers have been seen on the streets during the day, with many asking aggressively, even as children come home from school or during lunch breaks
Adams continued, “This is what happens when you create an atmosphere where people cannot take care of themselves and have to resort to illegal activities to do so. When I talk about the spiraling impact of how this is going to affect our city, this is what I’m talking about. We are going to create generational problems based on the failure of the national government and that is an example.”
The mayor said the city has identified two locations of concern: one in East New York in Brooklyn and the other on Roosevelt Avenue. He said he will focus on prosecuting the Johns and providing relief to the sex workers.
Prostitution is considered a class B misdemeanor in New York, punishable by up to three months in jail and/or a fine of up to $500. Patronizing a prostitute is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and /or a fine of up to $1,000.
The mayor also denounced local officials who are working “against the city” to legalize sex work because they see it as dignified labor.
“This is where idealism collides with realism…I’ve heard elected officials tell me that the women are just trying to work – ‘why are you trying to harm them?’ – (but) there are real problems around illegal sex work, from STDs to sex trafficking of girls and violence,” he said.
Thousands of Venezuelan asylum seekers have been bused north after crossing the US-Mexico border by conservative Texas Governor Greg Abbot. Most come from extreme poverty and have crossed the dangerous Darien Gap on their journey out of the troubled socialist country.
When asked by reporters about the outdoor sex market, Adams was alerted to the situation by local headlines
The mayor said the city has identified two locations of concern: one in East New York and the other on Roosevelt Avenue (photo above)
In September, the Biden administration granted temporary legal status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans who had arrived in the country as of July 31. This was in addition to the 242,000 previously covered by TPS subsidies in 2021 and 2022.
The Roosevelt Hotel downtown is being called the new Ellis Island because hundreds of people come in every day asking for shelter and help.
As New York deals with more than 60,000 people in its care, City Hall has signed nearly 200 eye-popping emergency contracts totaling more than $5 billion to house and care for migrants.
After setting up hundreds of emergency shelters, the shelter is still out of capacity and desperate for space to house migrants as required by the city’s Right to Shelter law, which Adams is trying to change.
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
A map from the Mayor’s Office showing the location and density of hotels and shelters officially known as Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRC)
When asked if City Hall was still considering tent encampments, as previously reported by DailyMail.com, Adams said all options remain on the table.
The Democrat said the city government is constantly adjusting its plans based on arrival numbers, which vary from week to week.
Last week, about 2,500 migrants arrived in the city, but in another week, as many as 4,000 newcomers arrived, according to Adams.
With the city running out of space, Adams reiterated that his goal is for no family or child to have to sleep on the streets.
The mayor’s office previously said that encampments in Central Park, Prospect Park and Floyd Bennett Field are “on the table.”
Between hotels and other locations, the city has opened at least 250 emergency shelters for migrants. In March there were only 103, showing how the crisis continues to worsen.