NEW YORK -- Grassroots volunteers who have been aiding the city’s efforts to help migrants as they arrive at the Port Authority bus terminal say they’re being shut out by the city at the new 24/7 arrival center for asylum seekers at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Volunteers, some of whom have been critical of the Adams administration’s handling of the migrant crisis, were told with little warning that the Adams administration plans to divert newly arriving buses from Port Authority to the Roosevelt Hotel, along with other migrant resources, according to Ilze Thielmann, who leads Team TLC NYC.
“It may seem like they got rid of us finally once and for all, but they didn’t see that that’s not the case because we’re not here for them. We’re here for the people,” said Power Malu, founder of Artists-Athletes-Activists.
Since last year, Port Authority has both been the entry point to New York for migrants traveling by bus from the southern border and a respite center where hundreds of asylum seekers return every day for food, clothing, legal help and other services.
The city plans to use the Roosevelt Hotel as an intake center for asylum seekers with 850 rooms in the hotel for children and families and access to legal and medical help as well as other services like mental health counseling and transportation reticketing.
Malu said this model was ripped straight from his and other volunteers’ playbook at Port Authority, where for months they’ve been helping migrants at the Port Authority Bus Terminal without city funding.
“The bottom line is that we continue to be present for the people that are coming to us,” Malu said. “There’s really no rhyme or reason for them to try to get rid of advocates that clearly have been doing so much official work and so many different capacities.”
Calls to City Hall for comment were not immediately returned.
According to volunteers, this is the second time Adams administration officials have tried to block them from assisting migrants, after they first announced plans for a different migrant welcome center in March.
“That’s something they’ve been saying for months, it appears that they are finally taking some affirmative steps to make it happen,” Josh Goldfein, attorney with Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project, said.
This move also comes as non-profit groups have run out of money to help transport recently arrived migrants at the city’s airport — potentially leading migrants stranded.
“If those volunteers aren’t doing that, what’s gonna happen? Migrants are just going to accumulate at the airports,” Goldfein said. “[The city] could provide the funding to the volunteers, they could take responsibility for doing that themselves, they could charter MTA buses. There’s any number of ways to solve the problem. I’m not telling them what to do, but if they do nothing, what’s going to happen is that we will see people pile up at the airports with nowhere to go.”
