Chaos erupted outside a Staten Island migrant shelter as protesters tried to block asylum seekers from moving in.
About a dozen protesters were arrested Tuesday outside a former Island Shores assisted living center in Midland Beach, where a crowd greeted the migrants with chants such as “Take them back, take them back.”
Footage from the scene showed protesters banging on bus windows as they tried to prevent migrants from disembarking and entering the shelter.
The asylum seekers were finally able to get off the buses, a few hours after their arrival at the shelter.
The protest comes as Mayor Eric Adams faces a furious backlash after more than 110,000 migrants have flooded into the city since spring 2022. Many migrants have been transported north from Republican border states in an effort to prove the Democrat’s open-arms policy. are a disaster.
Chaos erupted outside a Staten Island migrant shelter as protesters tried to block asylum seekers from moving in.
About a dozen protesters were arrested Tuesday outside a former Island Shores assisted living center in Midland Beach.
The asylum seekers were finally able to get off the buses, a few hours after their arrival at the shelter.
Adams denounced the protesters Wednesday, calling them “ugly” and saying he won’t allow the city to be “bullied” into “fulfilling its responsibilities,” as NY1 reports.
“We cannot allow the numerical minority who are showing a dismal display of how we are handling the crisis to be used as an example of what New Yorkers are doing,” he said.
“I understand the frustration that New Yorkers are experiencing and I also understand the frustration that asylum seekers are experiencing,” Adams added.
Police said a police officer was injured in the knee when one of the protesters, Vadim Dlyakov, a local resident, resisted arrest. Dlyakov, who lives a block from the assisted living facility, was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration, as reported by the New York Daily News .
The rest of the arrested protesters were taken into custody and released on summons for disorderly conduct.
New York’s migrant crisis is expected to cost the city more than $4 billion this fiscal year if the situation persists — and Mayor Adams has warned that the influx of asylum seekers could destroy the city.
Despite Adams’ pleas for help from the state and federal government, the city has not received aid to cover the additional costs, so the $4.7 billion would come from city budget. This amount is equal to the combined budgets of the city’s sanitation, fire and parks departments.
There are now nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s custody, and about 21,000 new migrant children are starting school this year.
The city said less than 2 percent of migrants are housed on Staten Island.
City officials said they expected the number of asylum seekers to reach nearly 33,980 households this fiscal year.
A crowd greeted the migrants, chanting “Take them back, take them back”
New York’s migrant crisis is expected to cost the city $4.7 billion this year. Above is a list of some of the landmarks that have been turned into emergency shelters as authorities struggle to house nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s care.
The Roosevelt Hotel (photo), the Paul Hotel and the Paramount Hotel are among the hotels designated to house migrants in Manhattan.
Adams warned that city services will be affected by the incredible additional spending on the budget. He previously said the city plans to cut services such as library hours, meals for seniors and free full-time care for three-year-olds.
The city has a legal obligation to house those headed to the metro, and Adams has desperately turned to a variety of city landmarks, makeshift shelters and temporary housing as short-term solutions.
Although authorities have not revealed how many hotel rooms have been reserved for migrants, hospitality industry experts estimate there are as many as 10,000, as The City reports.
The Roosevelt Hotel, the Paul Hotel and the Paramount Hotel are among the hotels designated to house migrants in Manhattan.
Long lines of migrants, mainly men from Africa, are now often seen outside the legendary locations.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently dispatched a small team to New York to help determine how the federal government should respond.
The federal government has so far promised the city $140 million to help, although the city has yet to receive any of that money. A city spokesperson later clarified that requests for money had been made, but that the delay could be due to routine bureaucratic reasons.
New York officials have been sounding the alarm for months about their failure to right the ship, with Adams warning that his office estimates the problem will cost the city about $12 billion in just three years.
He declared a state of emergency in the fall and repeatedly called the flood a “humanitarian crisis.” The mayor’s unsuccessful demands for more federal funding led him to condemn President Biden in April for “failing” the city.
The crisis is also far from being confined to New York, as many major metropolises are also struggling to house asylum seekers. In Chicago, residents were stunned to learn that a police station had been turned into a shelter in May.