A migrant at the Brooklyn makeshift shelter has blasted those who camped outside a fancy Manhattan hotel because the influx “makes us all look bad”.
Attempts by Woke activists to force the Watson Hotel to house hordes of single male migrants collapsed overnight as the frenzied scene was cleared to Brooklyn.
The tense days-long standoff between police and left-wing agitators, who demanded that migrants be accommodated at the $450-a-night hotel, ended last night when the group was bussed away from the scene.
Although some migrants tried to defy city officials and camp out on the sidewalk, others have slammed the controversy.
Venezuelan migrant Jefferson Gonzalez, 26, told : “I am very ashamed and embarrassed that we are unable to make demands. They make us all Venezuelans look bad and we are not all the same.”
Police stood guard Wednesday night as the city attempted to move the migrants to the new Brooklyn facility
Sanitation Ministry workers cleared the mess from the scene after the migrants took over the sidewalk
The frenzied scene was swept by city workers overnight after the migrant camp that had taken up the sidewalk for the week was cleared
Accidental attempts by the city to resolve the crisis have resulted in New Yorkers being forced to carry pepper spray when the “disruptive” migrants took over the area earlier this week.
The impasse outside the hotel worsened as a bitter cold snap is set to drop temperatures in New York City below zero, but successful efforts to clear the site left just a single protester this morning.
The eviction began Wednesday night when 10 migrants boarded a bus taking them from the $450-a-night hotel to the Brooklyn facility.
As a bus arrived, heard a migrant yell, “If you want to go, go. If you want to stay, stay.
“We’re not going to sleep on these shitty beds.”
The new facility was quickly set up by New York City Mayor Eric Adams when he was converting a cruise ship terminal in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood into a 1,000-person capacity lodging.
While city officials urged migrants to prefer the new shelter to the freezing cold pavement, some have complained about the conditions.
Llabrado, 22, a former special forces officer in Venezuela, said the only good thing about the site is the food.
“Prison is better,” he said. ‘It is so cold.’
Despite repeated attempts to move the group before last night, some 25 to 35 migrants defiantly tried to remain, backed by left-wing activists who demanded they be housed and boarded at the expensive hotel.
But their demonstration alongside the migrants proved futile as the scene was cleared Thursday morning and the mayor’s new facility now houses and feeds the influx.
When the sidewalk outside the Watson Hotel was emptied overnight, only one awakened activist appeared on the now-cleared site.
Josephine, 26, an artist, traveled from her home in Brooklyn to bring donuts and coffee to migrants, only to find that no one was there when she arrived.
She told : “I heard there were people here and I wanted to bring them food. I didn’t know they left.”
She founded GoFundMe and raised $60 in donations to help the migrants and also took $20 out of her own pocket for the cause.
“What the mayor did to the migrants is extremely violent and harmful,” she added.
“They did nothing wrong by forcing her to live in prison-like conditions. I heard it was cold, there were bugs and it wasn’t clean.
“These are people who have been deprived of their rights. They are here because they want to be free, to work and to support their families. They are not here by choice, but by necessity.”
“The mayor does this to make the city clean and beautiful, but in reality the city is deteriorating due to his policies that do not support the people.”
Jasmine, 26, arrived at the camp to protest the city’s handling of the situation, only to find she was the only one there
The artist had planned to deliver donuts and coffee to the migrants
Signs hang from a metal fence in front of the Brooklyn animal shelter
About a dozen migrants left the Manhattan hotel for new accommodation in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening
The tense standoff was resolved overnight before a bitter cold snap hits the Big Apple that will send temperatures plummeting below zero
City Hall pointed the finger at activists from groups like South Bronx Mutual Aid for fueling the standoff, and mayor’s press secretary Fabien Levy said ahead of the eviction: “I don’t even understand the logic here.
“Rather than encouraging asylum seekers to sleep in warm, temperature-controlled indoor quarters at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, these groups are asking migrants to sleep in tents on the street.
“The lack of reasoning here is astounding.”
Adams, who vacillated between asking the federal government for help dealing with the flood of migrants and boasting that his city is welcoming, paid a personal visit to the new Brooklyn location on Monday.
“Since last summer, New York City has opened five humanitarian emergency and relief centers and over 80 shelters to help the over 43,000 asylum seekers who have arrived,” his office tweeted.
“We have offered them shelter, food, legal assistance and other resources while we await national assistance.”
As protests raged on earlier this week, the standoff turned hostile as activists held umbrellas to block cameras while berating reporters.
A reporter filming for Al Arabiya TV from Dubai had his camera smashed by a migrant.
While police warned migrants about action, no arrests have yet been made.
Although they were offered food and lodging at the new facility, many refused to move until cleared by city officials.
After being evicted from their rooms at the Watson Hotel over the weekend, hordes of activists blocked the sidewalk as migrants camped around them for days.
Some of the migrants berated the news media and a reporter’s camera was hit and damaged by a migrant
Activists held up umbrellas to block news teams amid tense scenes outside the hotel on Wednesday
Efforts by New York City authorities to relocate the migrants during the week included desperate pleas from evangelical pastor Rev. Erick Salgado, who serves as deputy commissioner in the mayor’s office for immigrant affairs.
Addressing the crowd of migrants in Spanish last night, he assured them that their new accommodation would be an improvement to the pavement in front of the hotel.
“We want to transfer most of the asylum seekers to the HERRC in Brooklyn,” he said, referring to the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC).
“We all know it’s going to be very cold and windy and we want to make sure they have the resources they need this winter.
“Yesterday we drove to the Brooklyn facility with a lot of them.
“The majority of them want to go there and stay there in Brooklyn — they have transportation. we have buses And many of the local churches that I have set up to help them there too.’
As the situation worsened and the migrant group appeared to be interfering, New York residents have expressed concerns about the city’s handling of the recent influx.
After the camp appeared outside the Watson Hotel seemingly overnight following its eviction, commuters fueled fears for their own safety in the city.
A single mum told she was forced to carry pepper spray to try and get through the frenzy on her way home.
Erika Quintero, who lives across the street from the tent-laden camp on West 57th Street, told that in the few hours since the camp was set up, the migrants had already been “disruptive”.
“There was so much noise last night,” said Quintero, who lives alone in the apartment building with her 9-year-old son.
“Loud music, people screaming,” she said. “My son tried to take a Zoom class. It’s very scary.’
Erika Quintero, a single mother who lives across the street from the camp with her young son, told she was forced to carry pepper spray just to make it through the rowdy crowd to her building and laid present the canister as evidence
Earlier in the week, migrants were camping outside the Midtown Manhattan hotel, with city officials providing food
The outdoor camp surfaced shortly after the migrants were evicted from the hotel, spurring NYPD officers to arrive at the scene just hours later