One person has been arrested following a violent confrontation between NYPD officers and migrants at the city's Randall's Island Center – the chaos was captured on video.
Chaos erupted at the increasingly lawless tent camp on Thursday when a person who was not registered to stay at the facility was asked by officers to leave, police said.
Video circulating on social media shows police arresting one person before several others join the fight. No serious injuries occurred, police later said.
It is the latest in a series of violent attacks since Randall's Island began housing migrants in August 2023, as New York struggled to accommodate large numbers of arrivals from other states.
Just last month, a 24-year-old man was stabbed to death while waiting in line for food on the island.
A violent confrontation between NYPD officers and migrants at the municipal shelter at Randall's Island
Video circulating on social media shows police arresting one person before several others join the fight
Dramatic footage from Thursday showed the encounter between NYPD officers and migrants at 11 a.m.
Police had responded to a report that a man had caused a disturbance.
“Upon arrival, officers observed a male engaged in a verbal argument with security and behaving disorderly,” an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Post.
When police arrested one person, several jumped onto the scene and tried to stop the police. The suspect attempted to resist officers and pulled his arms away as they attempted to handcuff him.
Several migrants can be seen talking to police officers as officers attempt to control the crime scene.
Then two police officers push the crowd back with batons while a backpack is thrown through the air and hits a police officer in the head.
Screams and screams can be heard as police try to restrain the man.
Finally, several police officers carry the suspect out of the shelter while a group of migrants follow him and scream.
The videos are the latest in a series of high-profile incidents at the animal shelter.
In January, witnesses told police that 24-year-old Dafren Cabello was attacked by four men after he reportedly chatted with a Peruvian man's girlfriend.
Migrants living at the facility said they regularly had concerns about their safety at the facility. Mauricio Pinto told the New York Post, “Everyone has a knife.”
Residents have also warned that the center is splitting along ethnic lines into armed “camps” pitting Hispanics, Africans and Haitians against one another.
“There are definitely camps,” Moroccan migrant Nabil Jajhlaq told the New York Post.
“It is often stolen. If you put your phone or charger away for a moment, it will be taken away immediately.”
“They will take all the things you don’t have.”
“Everyone has a knife,” added migrant Mauricio Pinto.
The Randall's Island migrant shelter is fully funded by New York State. It covers 6.4 hectares of land and houses nearly 3,000 adult male migrants.
Young father Dafren Cabello, 24, had only been in the US for a month when he was stabbed to death on Randalls Island after leaving his home in Venezuela
The Randall's Island migrant shelter is fully funded by New York State. It covers 6.4 hectares of land and houses nearly 3,000 adult male migrants
The migrant shelter on Randall's Island is one of the makeshift tent cities set up in August 2023 to help with the city's refugee crisis. Officers are pictured at the facility on Thursday
Conditions are grim at the 3,000-person tent city, New York's largest refugee shelter, as winter sets in on Randalls Island in New York's East River
The shelter opened its doors in August 2023, replacing a smaller center (pictured) that opened a year earlier
Elsewhere in the city there was violence between law enforcement and migrants.
Last month, a group of migrants attacked NYPD officers in Times Square as officers attempted to disperse a disorderly group in front of 220 West 42 Street.
According to the NYPD, the migrants then began attacking the officers, kicking them in the head and body while the two officers attempted to restrain one of the other men and rip his sweatshirt off.
Several of the suspects were initially released on recognizance, meaning they were released from custody without bail while their cases were pending.
The move caused widespread outrage across the city and calls for stricter enforcement.
By December 2023, more than 140,000 migrants streamed into the city in 18 months, pushing the city to its limits.
The city government has spent about $3.5 billion on the thousands of migrants and nearly 70,000 remain in city shelters.
New York has a right to shelter and an obligation to house asylum seekers, but shelters are filling up at an astronomical rate.
In Manhattan, several landmark hotels have been converted into temporary shelters and shelters.