New York City, and its five boroughs, have opened emergency shelters to house the 95,000 migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the year.
Asylum seekers with children may soon be forced to sleep on the street because of the immigration crisis. Those who have found temporary housing sleep on cots in places like a decommissioned jail in Harlem, a disused church in Queens, and a former martial arts school.
Meals are served in cardboard containers, there are no private showers for the hundreds of people staying there, and the only amenity is a “reconnection room” where migrants may call loved ones elsewhere in the nation and get a free ticket out of New York.
New Yorkers are pushing back against the thousands of migrants who have lately flooded into the city. Shock and outrage erupted among Brooklyn’s first-generation immigrant population on Sunday when they learned that City Hall had crammed scores of male asylum-seekers into the Sunset Park Recreation Center. At least 300 locals gathered outside the facility to show their disapproval and gather signatures for a petition to give to Mayor Eric Adams and other municipal authorities.
According to Vincent Lu, “a lot of elderly people” in the area are members of the municipal leisure facility, which features a pool and other amenities. A mob of at least 300 locals protested outside the facility after being refused entry.
On Saturday, at least 60 migrant males were transported by bus to the Sunset Park facility and slept on cots provided by the city. More than 90,000 people have been bused into New York City since last spring, and this decision comes as city officials are scrambling to keep up with the flood of newcomers. More than 50,000 individuals are now being housed and cared for by the city.
Mayor Adams has said the city has reached a breaking point and has asked the Federal government for more help and assistance in accommodating immigrants. Adams has called it one of the most significant humanitarian crises the city has ever seen.
