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Mayor Adams blames ‘agitators’ as migrant protest at Midtown hotel continues into fourth day
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Feb 1, 2023
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Gwynne Hogan/Gothamist
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Feb 1, 2023
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The standoff between migrants and city officials continued as temperatures in the city plummeted to freezing levels.
Several dozen migrants braved another day in the cold, refusing to leave the sidewalk outside a Midtown hotel and move to a 1,000-bed shelter in Brooklyn, where city officials have told them they must relocate.
The protest started on Sunday night when a group of men who had been moved to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal returned to the Watson Hotel and asked to be let back in. They described conditions at the Red Hook pop-up shelter as “inhumane,” citing safety concerns as well as a lack of heat and privacy.
When the men were denied re-entry to the Watson, which the mayor's office said was needed in order to accommodate migrant families, they set up camp outside.
By Wednesday, a group of migrant leaders and city officials had brokered a deal for several men to tour the new shelter and see conditions there firsthand. But when the men returned that afternoon, they said the visit had confirmed their worst fears about the 1,000-bed facility.
“That doesn’t look like a shelter, it seems like a prison,” said Ivan Pereira, 33, one of the migrants who toured the site.
“A ping-pong table, a Playstation, a few televisions, and you bought the migrants, right?” said Carlos Espinosa, another asylum-seeker who visited the Cruise Terminal on Wednesday. “We’re human beings. They’re treating us worse than animals.”
The men who toured the Red Hook shelter said they saw outdoor showers and bathrooms in a cold, garage-like area, which granted no privacy from the hundreds of other men at the site. They also complained of cold temperatures inside.
The mayor’s office and the Office of Immigrant Affairs have blamed the ongoing standoff on misinformation and local activists, who they claim are encouraging the protesters.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams questioned whether the men sleeping outside were even migrants.
“I’m not even sure they're migrants," he said. "There are some agitators, that just really I think is doing a disservice to the migrants.”
Gothamist spoke to more than a dozen men participating in the protest. Most described immigrating from Venezuela, though several others said they were fleeing Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
While local mutual aid groups were on scene providing food, hot coffee, tents and blankets — the protesting migrants insisted their decision to stay camped out demanding better accommodations was their own.
“No, no one is forcing us to do this,” said Espinosa. “I’m not just fighting for myself. I’m fighting for all migrants, for the good of all of us, for those who arrived, those who are here, and those who are going to keep coming.”
The men said they vowed to stay outside the Watson indefinitely to demand more dignified accommodations, despite the impending cold front expected to plunge temperatures in the city down to the single-digits by Friday night.
At the press conference, Adams reiterated the city’s position that it needed to move single men out of the Watson so migrant families could move in. He said that while several dozen men were protesting, hundreds more had moved into the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal without a fight.
“We are moving children and families into the hotel,” Adams reiterated on Wednesday. “Single adult males all over the city live in congregate settings.”
The ongoing influx of asylum-seekers has tested the limits of the city’s shelter system. Through mid-January, the most recent data available from the mayor's office, nearly 30,000 asylum-seekers were staying in shelters and relief centers.
Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.
Tagged
new york city
Mayor Eric Adams
Asylum Seekers
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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