City officials are defending a new relief center for asylum seekers at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, claiming that the conditions are acceptable for migrants in need of shelter.
“There is heat. There is hot water. There is a level of comfort and care there that is available,” First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright told Bobby Cuza on “Inside City Hall” Monday night. “And there are hundreds of people who are there, who chose to go there and who are continuing to go there.”
The city opened its fifth migrant relief center — the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal site in Red Hook — earlier this month, with plans to move 1,000 single adult men there from the Watson Hotel in Midtown. The Watson Hotel will transition into a site serving asylum seeker families with children, according to Wright.
“There is not enough room for families with children [at the Watson Hotel] and we have to make space for families and children,” Wright said. “We are prioritizing the needs of families with children. And I think everyone would agree with that, and still making sure that we accommodate and care for single adult males.”
Nonetheless, as the city worked to move migrants from the hotel to the terminal, dozens protested and camped outside after not being allowed back into the hotel.
Several migrants who spoke with NY1 on Monday said they moved to the Watson Hotel from the city’s short-lived migrant facility on Randall’s Island, and were worried that a move back to Red Hook would cost them their new jobs.
At least one migrant told NY1 that the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal site was like a prison. South Bronx Mutual Aid, one of the groups that have been assisting migrants arriving in the city, called the site a “detention center.”
However, Manuel Castro, commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said that activists are spreading “misinformation” about the site.
“Some of the activists outside of the Watson Hotel [were] telling people not to get on the buses because they were being taken to detention centers or even concentration camps. That’s just wrong,” Castro said Monday. “That spread of information is dangerous. It’s harmful.”
“Most advocacy organizations are very responsible. Some of this behavior is not responsible. It’s not accurate, and it’s not appropriate,” Wright added.
More than 42,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city since last spring, and hundreds are arriving every day, according to the city.
To combat the migrant crisis, the city tried to build an emergency intake center on Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Then, the city built tents on Randall’s Island. Now, the city hopes the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal could be a more permanent solution.
Wright thinks the city is doing “an incredible job of being immediately responsive to the needs that we cannot anticipate day by day.”
“New York has been the city of immigrants throughout its history,” Castro added. “We’re trying to do the best possible under the circumstances.”
In all, the city is spending over $1.4 billion this year on the migrant crisis, Wright said, prompting city officials to ask for help from the state and federal government.
“We have said this over and over before. We need the federal government to step up and do more,” Castro said. “This has to be a shared responsibility amongst different levels of government.”