OAN’s Roy Francis
1:56 PM – Friday, August 18, 2023
Hundreds of New York residents gathered to protest the opening of a shelter located near an elementary school which is expected to house around 1,000 illegal immigrant men.
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On Wednesday, Protesters in Queens gathered around the shelter, holding up signs and chanting “no tent city.”
Multiple people were arrested during the protest, including Curtis Sliwa, the former GOP mayoral candidate, who had allegedly refused to comply with police orders to get out of the street and stop blocking traffic.
Protesters also held up signs that displayed messages such as “This is a national emergency! Close the border!” and “Our children deserve a safe school.”
The decision by city officials to house illegal immigrants in the shelter came after hotels and homeless shelters have been overrun with thousands of people that have entered the country illegally and were transported to New York.
Some protesters said that “they have compassion” for what the migrants are going through, however, everyone agreed that the location of the shelter makes no sense and is dangerous due to its proximity to a local elementary school, as well as a senior center.
State leaders approved the tent city, which is located in the parking lot of the state psychiatric hospital campus, in order to try and find housing for the almost 60,000 illegal immigrants that are currently in the state.
Only around 100 people arrived at the new facility this week, however, city officials say that its only a matter of time before all the space is taken up.
The immigrant situation in the state of New York, specifically New York City has also created tensions between Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D-N.Y.).
Hochul’s lawyer recently criticized Adams’ administration for the way that it is handling the situation. The Hochul administration wrote a letter which said that City Hall had failed to accept “numerous offers” from the state legislature in recent years which were meant for shelters.
The letter said that the proposed shelters would have been able to house more than 3,000 people, with different sites for single adult men. However, the governor’s administration said that the city had failed to take advantage of the proposal.
Although Adams defended the relationship between himself and the governor saying that they “like” each other and they are learning from each other on a constant basis moving forward.
“People who depict that letter as a brutal attack against us…people want to see the governor and I fight, that’s not going to happen — I like her, she likes me, and the things we can learn from each other we are going to do together,” Adams said.
New York is currently sheltering around 106,000 illegal immigrants and homeless people combined.
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