Ten people were arrested and one police officer was slightly injured during a protest in Staten Island, a borough of New York City, against the arrival of a bus full of migrants at a local shelter.
The asylum seekers were being sent to a repurposed assisted living facility in Midland Beach. When several hundred protesters blocked the bus’s path, officers were called in and a standoff ensued.
When police began to drag protesters off the street, one resident resisted, resulting in a police officer receiving a sprained ankle.
“As I told them, they don’t have enough handcuffs, they don’t have enough cops, they don’t have enough cars. We’re going to be out here 24/7, 365, and the illegals are not going to want to come here. They should stay in Manhattan,” Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, said.
These protests are not new to the Staten Island community. Last month, residents showed their frustration over the city’s decision to house migrants at the former St. John Villa Academy.
Mayor Eric Adams reacted to the outrage on Wednesday morning.
“We have 8.3 million New Yorkers, we cannot allow the numerical minority to show an ugly display of how we deal with this crisis,” Adams said.
The tensions comes as the state once again looks to the federal government for help.
Sorry, Curt. They don’t want them in Manhattan, either.
Related: New York City to Cut Up to 15% of Its Budget to Pay for Migrant Influx
In some ways, the backlash is reminiscent of the reaction to the Mariel boat lift in 1980 when more than 125,000 Cubans were allowed to leave Castro’s island — including up to 10,000 violent criminals that Castro sent as a present to President Jimmy Carter.
The political backlash was severe for Carter, who lost Florida by 17 points to Reagan after winning the state by 6 points in 1976.
Biden was never going to lose New York, but he may be forced to spend resources keeping the state blue that might otherwise have been spent in swing states.
“Get them out!”
Residents in Staten Island, New York continue to protest against migrants being sent to their borough. pic.twitter.com/8gnqTJtdD9
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 15, 2023
New York Mayor Eric Adams continues to blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the crisis. But as Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies points out, that’s balderdash. “It’s ridiculous for Mayor Adams to blame Gov. Abbott for this problem, when only 13,000 came on buses organized by Texas,” Vaughan told Byron York in an email. “Besides, many of them probably were looking to get to New York anyway. Texas is mainly facilitating what the migrants want to do already.”
The overwhelming majority of migrants who ended up in New York have been sent by the federal government directly from the border to Manhattan. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star is not to blame for the crisis in New York. Joe Biden and his border policies are responsible.
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