The Statue of Liberty is New York’s most recognizable landmark. It represents political freedom and democracy. It symbolizes the unofficial door to a better life and welcomes the persecuted and the restless. But even their hospitality seems to be drowning in the current wave of illegal immigrants …
Over 20,000 immigrants have entered the Big Apple in recent weeks, most of them illegal immigrants. Many were brought to New York on buses from Mexican border states like Texas or Arizona.
Mayor Eric Adams (62), who at the beginning of the wave of immigrants still bragged about how open and hospitable the metropolis was for immigrants, has now declared a state of emergency.
El Paso: Asylum-seeking migrants line up to get on buses bound for New York and Chicago
The already overcrowded homeless shelters are also now full, with more than 61,000 people. There is no room for newcomers from the south. However, new buses are arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Many are from Texas. The trips are – often for political reasons – organized by Governor Greg Abbott (64).
The Republican argues that even liberal metropolises should feel the pressure of record immigration numbers. But even Democrats, like the migrant-invaded Mayor of El Paso, Texas, Oscar Leeser (64), are sending buses to New York.
In this parking lot on Randall’s Island, tent camps have been set up for the arrival of migrants from Texas
The arrivals area in the bus terminal is now hermetically sealed. The media should no longer be filming the landing of immigrants. I don’t want anyone to see what’s going on here. I don’t want anyone to see the dream of a better life in America turn into a nightmare.
More than 2000 people arrived last weekend alone. The city administration is now desperate for housing. But there are growing problems: migrants they are housed in hotels, often wandering around the suburbs hungry and ice cream.
BILD went looking for clues
An entire tent city was erected. Adams has also temporarily planned to host people stranded on a cruise ship. 200 families can also be accommodated in the elegant “Row NYC” luxury hotel near Times Square ($ 400 per night).
New York City is becoming a border town amidst the historic crowd on the southern border of the United States (more than 2.1 million illegal border crossings in 12 months). The costs are exorbitant: the New York drama 2022 will cost more than a billion dollars.
Protesters protest against the conditions and treatment of refugees
On Randall Island, between Manhattan and Queens, a huge tent city is being built, a kind of detention center for stranded migrants. The first beds have already been set up, the workers screw metal rods together, the construction machines emit acoustic signals to transport material.
The last time there was a tent city in New York was during Corona hell in the spring of 2020. Now the white curtains are once again the symbol of a crisis. Criticisms were promptly raised due to the remote location: just behind the tent city is a psychiatric clinic and an emergency shelter for violent homeless people. There are fears that there may be outright riots among immigrants due to the threat of cabin fever on the isolated island.
The owner of the pizzeria was attacked for feeding the refugees
Change of scene south of the city area. Staten Island used to be a quiet area of New York, characterized by idyllic settlements, until hundreds of migrants showed up here, practically overnight. They have been housed in several hotels by the town hall. Many residents fluctuate between availability and horror.
“Suddenly they stopped in front of my restaurant, cold and hungry”, says the owner of the pizzeria “Verde’s Pizza and Pasta House”, Sebastian Bongiovani (51): “I gave them to eat, in such a situation you just have to to help “. He was also attacked for this: “Someone insults me in the street!” That’s how big the anger would be here right now. He himself criticizes the authorities’ casual approach to welcoming migrants away from any possibility of work or accommodation: here in this quiet suburb, very few have prospects, he says.
Because he was feeding refugees, Sebastian Bongiovani and his wife Danielle were attacked
The refugees will be temporarily housed in the tent city on Randall Island, but the places are now occupied and the tents are overcrowded.
The situation is “out of control” – there are reports of criminal incidents and open street prostitution
Dorothy C. lives near hotels, tells of criminal incidents and even street prostitution. Once migrants knocked on her door in the middle of the night and asked for food and clothing. She is happy to help people as a “Christian believer”, but the situation is “out of control”.
The migrants stand together in front of the Holiday Inn hotel. There are a lot of families there. Mothers breastfeed their babies while they are squatting by the roadside. The rescues brought by the helpers are housed on several tables and in an old camper. BILD observed how a man approached young women from the car, probably looking for paid sex.
As a “Christian believer”, Dorothy C. wants to help, but the situation is “out of control”
BILD also spoke to a migrant: Alexander is one of six million people who have fled the retirement home in South America, Venezuela, in recent years. “I came here because of the bad situation at home, I love New York and I’m very, very grateful to be here,” he says. He wants to find work quickly: “It doesn’t matter what he is, in construction or as an electrician.” He has four children and is in urgent need of a job.
The only Rixi, 19, also Venezuelan, had left her two children in Colombia. She wants to earn money so she can recover quickly. Her acquaintance, who does not even want to say her name for fear of reprisals, describes the odyssey before arriving in the United States, which has crossed seven countries. The most dangerous of this route is the “Darién Gap”, a path through the jungle between Colombia and Panama as the only land route between South and North America where criminals and rebels hide. She also wants to catch up with her children.
US President Joe Biden (79) under pressure: how does he want to deal with the now historic race of people at the borders? There have been more than 2.1 million illegal border crossings on the southern border of the United States alone in the past 12 months
In any case, the basic tenor among migrants: they want to work, but they seem rather perplexed as to exactly how to proceed. You feel stuck in the remote part of the city.
On the Democrats and US President Joe Biden (79) there is growing pressure to keep the number of people crossing the border under control. There are also rumblings within his own party: Adams, for example, admitted, given the chaos in his city, that the current border rush could not be “sustained” …
