NYPD clears migrants' tents from in front of Hell's Kitchen hotel
HELL'S KITCHEN, Manhattan (WABC) -- New York City police cleared groups of migrants from the Watson Hotel in Hell's Kitchen on Monday, but dozens who refuse to go are still on the street -- refusing to back down.
The asylum seekers who refused to leave camped out along 57th Street between 9th and 10th avenues.
The migrants said they'd rather sleep in the street than go to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
They said they have found work in Midtown, and at the cruise terminal, they would be in the middle of nowhere, sleeping next to the ocean.
Activists say everyone should get a hotel room.
"Very basic beds, head to foot, no space in between them, there's four bathrooms in the entire facility for 1,000 beds," said advocate Sergio Tupac Uzurin. "They've described multiple security gates to get in. They've described there's only food in limited hours and sometimes the water runs out, and more importantly it's cold in there. Despite the mayor's claim that it's heated, they said that it's cold in there."
Workers told Eyewitness News reporter Lucy Yang that in addition to staying for free in a luxury hotel, migrants also receive free food, free haircuts and free laundry service.
Advocates are asking migrants not to board the buses. City officials were then left pleading with asylum seekers and promising they'll have everything they need there.
The Mayor's Office released video Monday night inside Brooklyn Cruise Terminal as Mayor Eric Adams walked through. Adams said he wants to stop the anxiety.
"The asylum seeker crisis is a national problem that needs a national solution," Adams said in a tweet. "New York City is proud to have welcomed tens of thousands of asylum seekers and given them shelter, food and resources. But we can't do this alone."
Eventually police told migrants they couldn't block the sidewalk and forced them to break down the tents.
Single adult men staying at the Watson are being moved so that the space can be occupied by migrant families with children.
Eyewitness News Reporter CeFaan Kim spoke with some protestors Monday evening.
A city spokesperson told Eyewitness News they've had more than 42,000 migrants bused to New York City in the last year with that crisis at the southern border ongoing.
Adams directed the focus back on Washington.
"I'm speaking directly to the administration, this is a problem that we must have a resolution, both from Congress on immigration, but the administration to deal with the immediate need that we have," Adams said.
After migrants cleared the tents, there is nothing illegal about standing around or sleeping in the street.
So it appears now it is a waiting game.
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