According to sources at City Hall, a new mega-shelter established by Mayor Eric Adams was avoided by hundreds of asylum seekers because of the opposition sparked by so-called activists rather than genuine refugees.
The reports noted that the local organizations have repeatedly pushed to halt the city’s “efforts to encourage” migrants and have urged the protesting migrants to stay there outside the Watson Hotel on West 57th Street over the weekend instead of moving to the new location in Brooklyn.
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On Monday, police closed down eastbound traffic on the busy street due to disturbances by migrants outside the hotel. Adams, meanwhile, visited the brand-new building at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook and played ping pong at one of its two tables with migrants.
During the roughly 40-minute visit, he was accompanied by the municipal commissioner for immigrant affairs Manuel Castro, and director of the office of emergency management Zachary Iscol. After the visit, he made no more public statements.
A group of around 50 people gathered outside the hotel on Sunday night, including non-migrants who started storming the Watson and attempting to enter places they weren’t permitted to be in, according to officials, who then summoned the NYPD to help with crowd control.
After spending the night on the pavement, several migrants Monday held placards outside the hotel that said, “No A La Discrimination Al Imigrante,” while others used a water bottle to rinse out their mouths while brushing their teeth in the street.
It makes perfect sense, according to migrant Oswaldo Guillén, 23, of Ecuador, that those seeking refuge like himself would choose to remain at the hotel rather than the terminal.
He claimed that for nearly two months, he had his own room at the conveniently situated Watson, complete with an en suite bathroom, TV, and bar fridge. However, on Saturday, he claimed that he was bused to the remote terminal without warning, where he is now staying in a cot in a sizable cold space and using the shared showers in mobile trailers outside.
“The hotel had so many services they have just [now] taken away,” Guillén noted.
“Everybody who comes to New York, for whatever reason, deserves to live in places that are safe and have dignity,” a volunteer for the Red Cross said to The Post on Monday outside the hotel.
The unnamed private worker stated, “It’s our job as New Yorkers to provide that for other people.” While adding, “I brought coffee, hand warmers, and bananas. But I’ve heard what people really need are blankets and tents.”
“The city congruent sheltering systems anywhere in the city are dehumanizing at best and dangerous.”
The protest, according to the volunteers, developed naturally. They claimed to be a part of Mutual Aid NYC, a grouping of organizations and individuals that frequently coordinate online for various causes. The volunteers said that they were only made aware of the refugees’ street sleeping when they got on the site.
A frustrated City Hall official, however, told The Post, “It looks like the disruption outside the Watson Hotel yesterday was organized by local organizations and individuals who have repeatedly sought to stop our efforts to support the 43,000+ asylum seekers here in New York City.”
On Monday, groups with a stake in the situation, such as the Immigration Coalition, narrated a video of the hotel scene on social media.
“Migrants still outside holding their ground,” one tweet stated.
“They want to stay here in their rooms. They have jobs & community. Mayor Adams’ NYPD looks ready to sweep, but#mutualaide is here to hold them accountable.”
On Twitter, South Bronx Mutual Aid claimed there was no heat in the Red Hook Facility and accused City Hall of “lying” about how it treated the asylum seekers in its care.
“The Adams’ admin has reason to lie about refugee outcry at the Watson Hotel – refugees were evicted, some in the middle of the night. After being forcibly removed and bused to Red Hook Marine Terminal, they fled a site they described as a “prison”/ Ice Box,” the tweet stated.
According to a source at City Hall, the terminal is heated and has a temperature control system much like any other indoor facility.
In a statement released on Monday, City Hall spokesperson Fabien Levy said: “This weekend, we began the process of moving single adult men from the Watson Hotel to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, as we transition the hotel to meet a large number of asylum-seeking families with children.”
“More than 43,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since last spring, and we continue to surpass our moral obligations as we provide asylum seekers with shelter, food, health care, education, and a host of other services.
“The facilities at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will provide the same services as every other humanitarian relief center in the city, and the scheduled relocations to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal this weekend took place as planned. We remain in serious need of support from both our state and federal governments.”
Adams has criticized the state of the US southern border as well as fellow Democrat President Biden for not doing enough to assist the city and others around the US in dealing with the problem.
Many of the recent immigrants arrived on buses that were paid for by border states angry about Biden’s lenient immigration regulations.
For the influx of migrants, the city had earlier established another intake center on Randall’s Island, but it was swiftly shut down for lack of usage.
An NYPD official stated that the migrants’ transfer to the Brooklyn facility “has to be voluntary” similar to Randall’s Island.
A volunteer shouted, “Don’t Go! ” as police started to up barricades across the parking lot close to the hotel to prevent stray migrants out at one point on Monday. The yard is an ice box!” was a remark regarding alleged insufficient heating at the new facility.
Some New Yorkers, though, had different opinions.
A truck driver shouted “Send them back!” as he passed the motel.
“Go back to your country!” was also yelled by a passing female.
A representative from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs spoke with some of the migrants outside the hotel and assured them that he and other municipal employees “are here to help with [your] transition.”
Another group of migrants came around him as he started speaking to one of the men, saying that there was allegedly no heat at the Brooklyn Cruise terminal.
Another immigrant expressed dissatisfaction, saying that “if they need to use the bathroom, they have to go a block away and bring all of their stuff because they were told that the facility would not be responsible for any lost or stolen items.”
Another migrant noted, alluding to the on-site showers, “At least in Randall’s Island, we had a bathroom.”
The remaining migrants were requested to pull down their improvised tents outside the hotel on Monday afternoon before representatives from NYC Homeless Outreach, municipal sanitation authorities, and police officers went inside to discuss how to handle the problem further. The migrants cooperated, but some of them still live under the tarps that they left up.
During the talks, two migrants left the hotel at different times and feigned to take the bus to Red Hook before defiantly navigating the parking lot barriers with their baggage. Nobody attempted to relocate them, and the group cheered the prank. Eventually, the barriers were taken down.
