A cruise ship terminal is likely to be the next stop for New York migrants after they were locked out of various Big Apple hotels, as some activists say the move is not an appropriate solution.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will open Monday and will house about 1,000 single adult male migrants.
The migrants, who were taken from a tented shelter on Randall’s Island to various hotels across the city, will head to the terminal from the Watson Hotel in Midtown starting Monday morning, with cameras capturing some who are being pressured into boarding buses get off Red Hook Sunday night.
Only a small number of the migrants boarded the buses, three of which left the hotel, totaling around 15 to 20 people. This hotel will then replace the single male migrants with families currently residing at The Row in Hell’s Kitchen.
A cruise ship terminal is likely to be the next stop for New York migrants as the Big Apple’s humanitarian crisis rages on, while some activists say the move is not an adequate solution
This will not be a permanent home as the city has promised to close the facility in time for the start of the spring cruise season.
The asylum seekers were video interviewed by reporters on Sunday night, where one complained that conditions were inhumane and there was a lack of adequate food.
Adams was optimistic about asking for federal help, which included a rally outside City Hall on Sunday.
Washington has approved spending of $800 million in crisis support, but it will go to various cities across the country.
Even if everything went to New York, the city itself will spend more money to help the migrants, according to ABC7.
However, Adams boasted on Sunday that the migrants live in better conditions than in other cities.
“People sleep on the streets in El Paso,” Adams said at the rally. “They sleep in airports. I spoke to my colleague in Chicago, people sleep in library basements. No family sleeps on our streets.”
Mayor Eric Adams announced the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will open Monday and will house about 1,000 single adult male migrants
Adams was optimistic about asking for federal help, which included a rally outside City Hall on Sunday
The migrants, who were taken from a tented shelter on Randall’s Island to various hotels across the city, will head to the terminal from the Watson Hotel in Midtown starting Monday morning
‘s cameras captured some migrants being pressured into boarding buses bound for Red Hook on Sunday night
These immigrants stayed at the Watson Hotel. Now they can’t go back
An NYPD officer watches as migrants board the bus bound for RedHook. Immigrants are pressured to board buses to Red Hook, where living conditions are said to be poor
On duty tonight as asylum seekers are transferred from Manhattan to Red Hook, where they say the conditions are inhumane, freezing cold and there is a lack of adequate food. “No somos animales”. pic.twitter.com/YlIYlNLgdF
— Jasmine Garsd Garcia (@JasGarsd) January 30, 2023
He added that there are no plans for the city to stop accepting migrants, but that they need additional preparations if the Supreme Court allows Title 42 – the pandemic rule that makes it harder to seek asylum in the US – to expire .
Activists are not happy with the ongoing movements and say it is not an adequate solution.
“Now they’re going to be moved to a building that’s not meant to be dwellings, and the city has to prepare for people to sleep in it, and only for a short time,” said Josh Goldfein of the Legal Aid Society.
“We’re going to put a lot of resources into getting this building ready, only to take it down again I think when cruise ships come back.”
The site is also isolated and far from medical care and job opportunities.
A mayor’s office worker speaks with a police officer who is trying to get the migrants to take the bus to Red Hook
Immigrants and activists said conditions at the terminal were inhumane
A police officer speaks to some of the migrants who boarded the bus to the terminal
Only a small number of the migrants boarded the buses, three of which left the hotel, totaling around 15 to 20 people
Activists are not happy with the ongoing movements and say it is not an adequate solution
The site is isolated and far from medical care and job opportunities
A New York City bus departs for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on Sunday evening
“The city currently has shelters for tens of thousands of New Yorkers who were there before the migrants arrived, who could move out if they had some assistance,” Goldfein added.
Despite his proclamations on Sunday, Adams previously made headlines when he said “there is no more room” after previously declaring the city would always welcome migrants.
Buses carrying migrants have been arriving in NYC since the fall, when Republican governors, most notably Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, began sending asylum seekers from the border to largely Democratic cities.
WHAT IS TITLE 42?
The Title 42 border restrictions are a public health order that allowed US authorities to turn back most migrants, including people seeking asylum from persecution.
They were introduced during the pandemic and are currently expiring on Wednesday after several extensions.
But the number of migrants now attempting to cross the US-Mexico border is at its highest in two decades – with an even larger number expected to arrive once the pandemic-era order is lifted.
Many of them were repeat offenders because Title 42 has no legal or criminal penalties.
Title 42 power has been applied unevenly across nationalities.
Mexico has agreed to take back migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico – and in limited numbers from Cuba and Nicaragua. High costs, strained diplomatic relations and other considerations make it difficult to deport migrants from other countries who need to be flown home.
Title 42 is one of two key surviving Trump-era policies to prevent asylum at the border.
The little-used public health order that gives border officials the ability to quickly expel almost anyone found at the southwest border.
In April, the US Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the government should allow the government to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings before a US immigration court. This case arose before another Trump-appointed judge in Amarillo, Texas.