As New York City struggles to care for thousands of illegal immigrants now lining the streets, city officials are considering converting one of America’s most iconic attractions into a migrant shelter: Manhattan’s 843-acre Central Park.
Nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past 15 months after being transported from various cities along the U.S. southern border.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on July 31, “From this moment on, it’s downhill. There is no more room,” in a plea for help in resolving the crisis, which is now resulting in migrants sleeping on city streets because shelters are overcrowded.
Illegal aliens have waited for days outside the Roosevelt Hotel, “sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk in hopes of a bed in the city’s shelter system,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The AP added that some critics are accusing city officials of exploiting the outside lines as part of a campaign to pressure state and federal officials to send more money.
Now, the city is considering housing migrants in Central Park to cope with the influx of illegal aliens that has grown exponentially under the Biden administration.
“Everything is on the table,” the city’s Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said during a Wednesday press conference in response to a question about housing migrants in city parks.
“We are constantly looking at sites to see how we can accommodate people, but we need support and we think that the system is at a breaking point,” she added, according to Gothamist.
“One person who was briefed on the plan but not authorized to speak on the matter publicly told Gothamist that the city is also looking at erecting tents in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Randalls Island, where officials briefly opened a tent facility on a parking lot last fall,” according to the outlet. “On Tuesday, the Daily News reported that the administration is currently eyeing putting the tents on several soccer fields. That plan has sparked backlash from recreational users.”
Officials declined to state how soon migrant relocations to parks might be, or who the city is working with on potential plans.
Under New York State law, individuals seeking shelter cannot be turned away, meaning city officials are required to find them a bed. Churches and former prisons are among the facilities that have been converted into shelters. But, the situation has become so bad that migrants are sleeping on the sidewalk.
One shelter named Judo — located in Astoria, Queens — recently gave POLITICO an exclusive tour. The photos show cots stacked end-to-end for migrants to sleep, Islamic prayer rugs, as well as boxes of food stacked more than six feet high.
In hopes of reducing the chaos, Adams and two other mayors have petitioned the Biden administration to speed up work permits for migrants coming to their cities, CBS News reported.
