HomePoliticsMayor Adams questions if migrants camped outside NYC hotel are actually migrants:...

Mayor Adams questions if migrants camped outside NYC hotel are actually migrants: ‘I’m not even sure they are’

Published on

Mayor Adams suggested Wednesday that dozens of mostly Latin American men sleeping outside a Manhattan hotel may not actually be migrants, drawing ire from a representative of the group who accused the mayor of lying.

In his first public comments on the matter since migrants set up camp in front of the Watson Hotel on W. 57th St. last weekend, Adams told reporters that, by his count, only a few people remain in the sidewalk encampment.

“From my analysis, about 30 are still there, and I’m not even sure they are migrants,” he said at City Hall. “There are some agitators that I just really think are doing a disservice to the migrants, and doing a disservice to the children and families that are moving into the hotels.”

Adams did not elaborate on what makes him think the individuals aren’t migrants.

After the news conference, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy claimed the mayor was only “talking about the activists” who have donated food, tents and other supplies to the migrants camping out in front of the Watson.

“Everyone is lumping together the whole group [outside the hotel] as asylum seekers,” Levy said.

Ariadna Phillips, founder of the South Bronx Mutual Aid group whose members have been posted outside the hotel since last weekend, said that as of Wednesday morning, there were more like 50 migrants still camping in front of the Watson, in addition to various activists and advocates on site.

Adams’ comments infuriated Anthony Hernandez, a Venezuelan migrant who has been sleeping outside the Watson for several nights.

“That’s a lie! Obviously we are here,” Hernandez told the Daily News. “There are like 40 of us.”

[ Migrants set up camp on NYC sidewalk after refusing beds at Mayor Adams’ ‘inhumane’ mega shelter in Brooklyn ]

Hernandez and hundreds of other single adult male asylum seekers lived at the Watson for weeks, and in some cases months. Adams’ administration started moving them out of their rooms last weekend in order to accommodate migrant families with children at the hotel instead.

The administration offered to move the ejected single migrant males to a new mega-shelter in a Brooklyn Cruise Terminal warehouse on the Red Hook waterfront.

But many of them refused, saying that conditions at the warehouse are “inhumane.” Instead, they set up camp outside the hotel in protest on Sunday, and many of them have been there since.

Adams downplayed the severity of the situation at his City Hall news conference.

“It’s not a standoff,” he said. “We had over 1,000 people who were in the hotel. The overwhelming number of them moved.”

popular articles

Trump outlines plan to attack trans rights if re-elected, vows to ‘protect children from left-wing gender insanity’

Former President Donald Trump vowed to end gender-affirming care for minors if re-elected in...

Trump attacks Ron DeSantis for being too liberal on COVID and vaccine mandates

Deriding the Florida governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” Trump accused his leading potential GOP presidential...

FBI search turns up no classified documents at Biden’s beach home

The FBI Wednesday found no classified documents after searching President Biden’s Delaware beach home...

N.Y. lawmakers unhappy as Hochul makes 11th hour appeal to amend Grieving Families Act

ALBANY — Lawmakers pushed back Monday after Gov. Hochul proposed 11th-hour changes to a...

More like this

N.Y. lawmakers unhappy as Hochul makes 11th hour appeal to amend Grieving Families Act

ALBANY — Lawmakers pushed back Monday after Gov. Hochul proposed 11th-hour changes to a...

Hochul vetoes Grieving Families Act after 11th hour push for changes to bill to reform NY wrongful death law

“Gov. Hochul has turned her back on the people who deserve the opportunity to...

After delays under Trump, Biden vows to kick-start NYC’s Hudson River rail tunnels: ‘We’re gonna get it done’

President Biden pledged Tuesday to press full steam ahead on New York City’s Hudson...