German Chasiquiza and his brother stopped by the migrant intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel Monday with the hope of finding beds in one of the city’s migrant shelters.

“We need a place to live, there are times we don’t even have where to stay. We’ve come here to look for asylum, to ask for help,” Chasiquiza said while speaking to NY1 in Spanish. 

What You Need To Know

  • State, federal and city officials recently toured federally owned sites at Floyd Bennett Field and Fort Wadsworth to assess their suitability as shelters

  • Published reports indicate the Biden White House rejected Floyd Bennet Field
  • The latest sites the city plans to use as shelters are on Randall’s Island, which is set open early next week, and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens

The brothers are asylum seekers from Ecuador.

Things outside the Roosevelt look far different than they did earlier in the month when migrants slept on the street waiting to be processed. But the city says there is a constant need for more shelters. 

“Every day continues to be a fight to make sure that we’re able to provide beds and respite to everybody that is coming into our care,” said Zachary Iscol, commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. “You all know the numbers. Close to 60,000 people in our care, including nearly 20,000 kids.”

State, federal and city officials toured federally owned sites at Floyd Bennett Field and Fort Wadsworth in recent days to assess their suitability as shelters. Published reports indicate the Biden White House rejected Floyd Bennet Field.

“But I did not take away from that a hard no, so I think it’s just going to be an evolving process and I fully anticipate we’ll get an answer that is important to our people of this community,” Gov. Hochul said during a news conference Sunday.

The latest sites the city plans to use as shelters are on Randall’s Island, set to open early next week, and the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, which is set to begin accepting migrants Wednesday.

Some residents of Queens Village, where the Creedmoor facility is located, are on board.

“America is built on all diverse people,” said Queens Village resident Theresa Germaine. “Immigrants from all over.”

Other residents said they had serious concerns.

“I’ve already had people call me and state that once they move in, they’re not going to be coming here to HBQB play because they’re going to feel unsafe,” said HBQVB Little league President Steven Adler.

“Our opposition is to putting 1,000 unvetted males in an isolated area with no transportation across the street from a public school,” said Bob Freidrich, Glen Oaks Village co-op President.

Chasiquiza worries about anti-immigrant sentiment. He said coming to the U.S. was his family’s chance to have a better life.

“The truth is that we are here to look for, to overcome, for our families and for our children,” he said. 

The Creedmoor and Randall’s Island sites are in addition to state-owned facilities at Lincoln Correctional, a former prison in Harlem, as well as JFK Airport, which are already sheltering migrants and asylum seekers.

The Hochul administration said the state has also begun reimbursing the city $250 million as part of a $1 billion commitment in the state budget to reimburse the city for asylum seeker aid.