Furious migrants are refusing to stay in tent shelters set up for them in New York City – at great expense to the taxpayer – as they prefer their plush hotels in Manhattan.
A group of asylum seekers were seen being bused to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn on Sunday. The site, part of a national park located in southeast of the New York City borough, is expected to hold 2,000 people.
But they were immediately loaded on a bus back to Manhattan as they complained that they had jobs back in the city – and their kids had schools to attend.
Jaime Williams, a New York Assemblywoman who represents the district where the field is located, sounded stunned as she filmed the puzzling scene. The migrants are seen getting off the blue Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus, walking past the main entrance of the tent, before walking straight onto another bus.
When Williams questioned one of the officials about what had just gone on, he told her that he would explain after she turned off her camera.
One migrant said he was going to head back to the Roosevelt Hotel – which has been commandeered by the Democrat mayor – while another told the New York Post: ‘My kids go to school in the Bronx. For us to live out here is ridiculous.’
Migrants are refusing to stay in New York City ‘s tent shelters, as video showed them reluctantly arriving before immediately deeming it unsuitable and returning to their plush Manhattan settings
New York has by far received the highest number of migrants of any other northern city – over 120,000 in just 18 months.
Mayor Eric Adams first welcomed migrants sent north by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, going to Port Authority to personally receive the first buses.
But the buses kept coming, and a year later, Adams is pleading for federal and state aid – asking a judge to suspend the Right to Shelter policy and limiting stays for migrants staying in the city’s care.
The city is currently taking care of more than 60,000 migrants in hundreds of emergency shelters.
However, those bused out to the city’s tent shelter in Brooklyn were clearly not impressed.
Some, including one man who brought his family with him, said they weren’t warned where they were to stay.
‘We weren’t told where we were going,’ the man told the New York Post. ‘I work in the Bronx. My kids go to school in the Bronx. For us to live out here is ridiculous.’
Brooklyn is about 18 miles south of the Bronx.
‘We’re going back,’ the man added.
Another man was demanding to return to the Roosevelt in Midtown Manhattan, repeating that he had not been told where he was going.
Video showed the migrants taken to the makeshift tent city at Floyd Bennett Field
However, they immediately demanded to be taken back, with several having said that they were not warned where they were even being taken by officials
Some of them were set to go back to the swanky Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan , where the city has been processing the influx of migrants
‘They are going to take us back to the train so we can go back to 45th Street,’ he said. ‘We didn’t know we were coming here. They just said they were taking us to a shelter.
‘I cannot stay here,’ the man added. ‘This is crazy.’
Jaime Williams, a New York Assemblywoman who represents the district where the field is located, echoed the concerns of a health worker who’d spoken with the migrants.
‘When I asked him why did they leave immediately like that, he said the people, they were scared,’ Williams, a Democrat, said.
‘They weren’t sure what they were doing here. They don’t want to be here, and they asked to leave.
Williams also noted the distance between not only where some were working but where their children were attending school.
‘They said, ‘It’s so isolated, how could I possibly get back and forth to work?’ or, ‘Getting my children to school from here would be insane.’ So they all asked to leave.
She deemed the site ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ and noted that winter weather was starting to arrive in New York City Sunday night.
Some of the migrants, including one man who brought his family with him, said they weren’t warned where they were to stay
Pictured: Recently arrived migrants congregate outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan in September
New York has by far received the highest number of migrants of any other northern city – over 120,000 in just 18 months
‘It’s not the ideal location for anyone to live. There’s no supermarket. There’s no infrastructure.’
A bus driver said he was ‘shocked’ when the migrants turned and left and said that ‘only a few people stayed.’
A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that some migrants did reject the site, but some from both the initial bus and another that arrived two hours later stuck it out.
‘As we have said time and time again, more than 139,500 asylum seekers have moved through our intake system since the spring of 2022, all of whom have been offered vital services,’ the spokesperson said in a statement.
‘But with more than 65,600 migrants still currently in our care, and thousands more continuing to arrive every week, we have used every possible corner of New York City and are quite simply out of good options to shelter migrants,’ they added.
The city has signed over $5billion in nearly 200 contracts for migrant services since last year when he declared a state of emergency. Adams has said the crisis will cost the city $12billion over three years, and has warned New Yorkers will see their services affected by budget cuts to deal with the situation.
In May, Adams made major changes to the 40-year-old ‘Right to Shelter’ law that guarantees a bed for anyone who needs it in the city, as his government asked for federal and state help to deal with the surge of migrants that he now says could destroy New York as we know it.
‘This issue will destroy New York City,’ Adams has said of the influx of asylum seekers.
The city has signed over $5billion in nearly 200 contracts for migrant services since last year when he declared a state of emergency. Adams has said the crisis will cost the city $12billion over three years, and has warned New Yorkers will see their services affected by budget cuts to deal with the situation
In May, Adams made major changes to the 40-year-old ‘Right to Shelter’ law that guarantees a bed for anyone who needs it in the city, as his government asked for federal and state help to deal with the surge of migrants that he now says could destroy New York as we know it
Adams and the Democrat mayors of liberal havens Chicago , Los Angeles , Denver and Houston have joined forces to demand the White House step in as their cities become overwhelmed with thousands of new migrants arriving every day
Adams – who is currently facing an FBI investigation over corrupt fundraising practices – has even traveled to South America in his attempts to tell migrants to stay away from New York.
His government has also sent fliers to the border saying the city is ‘at capacity’ and has an expensive cost of living.
Adams and the Democrat mayors of liberal havens Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Houston have joined forces to demand the White House step in as their cities become overwhelmed with thousands of new migrants arriving every day.
While Biden has asked Congress for $1.4billion to help local governments shelter and aid migrants, the five mayors said in a letter they would need a whopping $5billion.