2023-08-22 00:05:48
Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the federal government issued a “tentative contract” to open a new site, which might house more than 2,000 immigrants in a humanitarian aid center, which would be installed in the old Floyd Bennet Field Naval Air Stationin southeast Brooklyn.
It is currently a green space managed by the National Park Service.
Details of the temporary shelter are not yet finalized. In this case, no rental fee would be paid, the lease is to make it clear that the federal government, you are not transferring ownership of the land to New York State.
“Ultimately, the way out of this crisis is to grant work authorization immediately, so that these people can leave the shelters and achieve an independent life. This site will be critical in the meantime for New York City, provide humanitarian aid.” highlighted the state president.
In response to this announcement, Mayor Eric Adams, who for months has been requesting financial assistance and national coordination to face this flow of immigrants that since spring 2022 continues to arrive in the Big Apple requesting lodging, food and medical services, described as ” positive” the agreement, but requested “significant policy changes” to really turn the tide of this crisis.
“We will continue to advocate for expedited work authorization for asylum seekers, a federal declaration of emergency and a national and state decompression strategy.The mayor reacted in a statement.
In parallel, organizations such as the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless are betting that it is “the first sign” of a more significant commitment from the White House and the government, to provide the City with more funds, personnel and facilities, to avoid another “nightmare scenario”, where people are relegated to the streets.
“We need more information from the State, including a concrete timeline for transitioning 30,000 new arrivals out of the shelter. And ensure the work authorization of these people, as well as information regarding transportation and other critical services, which will be available to newcomers once Floyd Bennett Field is operational“, demanded spokespersons for these organizations.
In this same sense, the Ombudsman, Jumaane Williams considered that the new site “It’s not ideal, but we still have to make the best of the bad options.”
“I appreciate that the federal government approves the location of this site, but their support cannot end here, since there is a much greater responsibility. We urgently need more federal funding to help ensure that people seeking asylumare received by the federal government with help, not with apathy,” he said.
Arrive first at Randalls
The pressure of the wave of immigrants that continue to arrive in the Big Apple does not go down. After 15 months of this trend, the City continues to look for spaces to house them, under a double critical gaze: On the one hand, the organizations that consider that the shelters designed in tents, They are not “human” enough spaces. And on the other, New Yorkers that increasingly and openly reject the use of their public spaces.
Starting this Sunday, the New York City Mayor’s Office put into service a new five-tent complex at the Randall`s Island youth soccer fields, to house 3,000 people. which means a 50% more than expected.
This new installation that was finished conditioning the weekend, received the first 150 men this Sunday.
Each tent with collective dormitories has air conditioning, furnished with green and black cots. While a dining tent will offer three meals a day.
The dining room will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to also offer drinks and snacks. In addition, there will be laundry service and individual safe deposit boxes. They have access to bathrooms, a cafeteria and social workers.
Upon arrival, migrants undergo a health examination, which includes COVID-19, a skin test to check for chickenpox and active tuberculosis.
“We really want to offer quality sites like this, where people can take a breather, meet with social workers and discover the next steps in an immigration process. It is just a point of arrival while they connect with their new life“, explained Christina Farrell, the first deputy commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management.
Republican NYC council members denounce that a global human trafficking network is sending thousands of people to the Big Apple. (Photo: F. Martinez)
The problems with the neighbors
Randall’s Park is an island in the East River, between East Harlem, the South Bronx, and Astoria in Queens.
Precisely, the installation of the first large refuge with tents last autumn, on that same island, drew harsh criticism from immigrant support organizations and elected leaderswho believed that immigrants were being sent to a “desert” without access to transportation.
The same organizations demanded last year, that hotels or more comfortable places be offered to newcomers. At that time, they were 9,500 people who had arrived in the city.
Now, almost a year later, 101,000 immigrants have arrived, more than 180 hotels are fully rented to address this humanitarian crisis and the City finds itself with its “hands on its head” to face a migratory flow, which for the next few months everything indicates, will not have any pause.
At the increasing rate of the flow of people who do not stop requesting, as soon as they cross the border, that New York is their destination, residents of neighborhoods near emergency shelters continue to protest the installation of these centers in spaces and parks for public enjoyment.
“Does this mean that in the middle of summer, you are going to take away young soccer players the opportunity to train to set up an emergency shelter? Are we talking in depth regarding this crisis for New York? either Are we sending messages to those who are at the border, so that they come en masse, to the only place that hosts and feeds them? claims the Colombian Daisy FinchAstoria resident.
There are already migrant families seeking asylum who are sheltering in Sunset Park Recreational Center and McCarren Park, under constant protest from the neighbors.
The municipal authorities have shown that not even the Central Park in Manhattan is ruled out to set up emergency tents, to face this humanitarian emergency.
“It’s a human trafficking network”
While funds are being sought to assist the new arrivals, in the Republican minority caucus in the Municipal Council, some councilors point out that there is “a well-established global human trafficking network to move people quickly to New Yorkwhere it is already interpreted that taxpayers will provide them with free housing, food and clothing, work and legal status,” he shared. Vicky Paladino, local Queens legislator
The councilor insisted this Monday on the social network X that the refugee laws were not written “to be abused in this way.”
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