(BROOKLYN, New York): The unfolding migrant crisis is now a subject of heated debates across New York City’s five boroughs and communities. On the one side are well-meaning New Yorkers who welcome these hapless migrants, the vast majority fleeing crime and violence in Latin America. But many New Yorkers, especially in Black and Brown communities, are expressing consternation and outright anger at their communities’ actual or perceived neglect and what they see as preferential treatment of these newcomers.
“We have all kinds of problems here in Brooklyn. High high rents, high food prices, and other problems we need help with. So, now we are less of a priority than those emigrants,” said Peter G, a lifelong resident of Brownsville in Brooklyn, who did not want to give his last name. He supports and says he could understand Mayor Eric Adam’s anger and frustration.
“How much more do they want this guy to take? He has to find places for them to live, find the money to feed them, and allow their kids to go to already overfull public schools… you’re beating up on him? Me? I do not envy his job,” Peter G. told CARIBBEAN TIMES NEWS.
And it’s not just Brooklyn. For example, the New York Post reported that the city’s spiraling out-of-control migrant crisis has local businesses fed up and frustrated. These businesses say they’re taking a financial hit as the chaotic influx of asylum seekers pouring into the city spills out of city-run mega-shelters and onto the streets. According to the Post: “From families
sprawled out on busy Midtown [Manhattan] sidewalks to grown men brawling and even mini tent cities popping up — frustrated New Yorkers say the asylum seeker mess has become a plague showing no signs of easing.
The newspaper has documented asylum seekers lounging in camp chairs on the sidewalk outside the massive Roosevelt Hotel shelter in Midtown as they paused to eat and smoke in the sunshine. Migrant kids have also been spotted playing outside businesses and riding their scooters up and down 46th Street, dodging pedestrians. And it seems that Mayor Eric Adams, never one to mince his words, is also fed-up with the situation and has unloaded on the Biden Administration and the federal government’s foot-dragging.
The Adams Administration has been very outspoken about the city running out of places to house migrants. “We knew we would get to this point,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams Isom. “We have had over 100,000 migrants that have come to New York City since last spring.” With 57,000 migrants in the city’s care, the Adams administration continues sounding the alarm that migrants have overwhelmed the city’s capacity to house them.
The latest shelters identified and being added are parts of the McCarren Recreation Center in Greenpoint and the Sunset Park Recreation Center, both in Brooklyn. “I’m a little bit concerned about safety features,” Anthony Mercatante, a Williamsburg resident, told Spectrum News. “I belong to the gym across the Street. I usually go there about 6 a.m. So, I don’t know if I’ll see them outside out there or whatever.”
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS’S RESPONSE
Amid the continued influx of migrants to New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has directed every city agency to cut city-funded spending. Adams said the cuts will not include layoffs. “The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel these potential cuts, and they will hurt,” Adams said.
In a video announcement, the mayor called the influx of migrants arriving in the city “a crisis that will cost our city $12 billion over three fiscal years.” He blamed federal and state governments for causing the city to make this drastic decision. “These tough decisions are a direct result of inaction in Washington and Albany,” the mayor said.
Under the belt-tightening plan, City agencies will be asked to submit a graph showing how they can cut costs by 5% for the upcoming November budget update, another 5% in January’s preliminary budget, and a final 5% in April’s executive budget. On top of these budget cuts, Mayor Adams said the city is working to reduce costs by moving migrants out of the shelter system that’s fast becoming clogged up by the heavy influx of migrants.
“New York City cannot bear the burden of this national crisis on our own. But these spending reductions will have to happen if we continue on our current course,” Adams said. “This is a national crisis that requires national leadership. It’s time for our partners to join us.”
CARIBBEAN TIMES NEWS has learned that New York City has opened up more than 200 emergency shelters for more than 110,000 migrants who have arrived. According to the city’s information, approximately 10,000 asylum seekers are still coming each month. And Mayor Adams is not backing down on his plan, saying the city faces “a financial tsunami.”
“I’m not going to lie to the people of this city on the danger we’re in right now,” Adams said. “We know how critical this issue is to the city and the state of New York. New York City is the economic engine of this entire state, and we need a decompression strategy in the state and the city,” the mayor stated.
In a joint statement, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Committee on Finance Chair Justin Brannan said there is “an urgent need for increased state and federal support to aid the city’s response to increased international migration.”
“New York City cannot be expected to handle this alone. The costs are considerable, and the city must receive more aid while safeguarding funding that supports New Yorkers. The
future of our town and its continued economic recovery relies on the investments we make into our communities and the essential services they rely on.
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