Migrants are cleared from sidewalk outside $450-a-night Manhattan hotel in late-night stand off
Woke activist attempts to force a swanky Midtown Manhattan hotel to house hordes of single male migrants failed overnight as the frenzied scene was cleared.
An influx of migrants that filled the sidewalk outside The Watson Hotel after they were evicted by the city has finally been moved after a tense stand-off between police and left-wing agitators.
Despite some migrants initially boarding a bus that would have taken them to a new shelter in Brooklyn yesterday evening, many instead attempted to remain outside as protesters continue to demand they are putting up. The hotel was cleared out to make room for migrant families, who are expected to move in by next week.
The deadlock outside the hotel was worsening as a bitter cold snap is set to send temperatures in New York City plummeting to below-zero, but successful efforts to clear the site have left only a small fraction of police and media remaining.
DailyMail.com is on the scene as the city’s haphazard attempts to solve the crisis have seen New Yorkers forced to carry pepper spray when the ‘disruptive’ migrants took over the area earlier this week.
Police stood guard on Wednesday night as the city attempted to move the migrants to the new facility in Brooklyn
Department of Sanitation workers have cleared the mess from the scene after the migrants took over the sidewalk
The frenzied scene has been swept overnight by city workers following the clear-out of the migrant encampment that took over the sidewalk throughout the week
The clear-out began on Wednesday evening as 10 migrants boarded a bus that took them from the $450-a-night hotel to the Brooklyn facility.
When a bus arrived, one migrant was heard by DailyMail.com yelling: ‘Whoever wants to go, go. Whoever wants to stay, stay.
‘We’re not going to sleep on those s*** beds.’
The new facility has been swiftly set up by Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, as he turned a cruise terminal in the Red Hook district of Brooklyn into a shelter with capacity for 1,000 people.
Despite repeated attempts to move the group, around 25-35 migrants attempted to remain defiant, bolstered by left-wing activists who demanded that they be housed and fed in the expensive hotel.
But their demonstration alongside the migrants proved futile as the scene was cleared by Thursday morning, with the mayor’s new facility now housing and feeding the influx.
City Hall pointed the finger at activists from groups including South Bronx Mutual Aid for fueling the standoff, with mayoral press secretary Fabien Levy saying before the clear-out: ‘I don’t even understand the logic here.
‘Instead of encouraging asylum seekers to sleep in warm, indoor, temperature-controlled quarters at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, these groups are telling migrants to sleep in tents on the streets.
‘The lack of reasoning here is astonishing.’
Adams, who has been flip-flopping between begging the federal government for assistance to deal with the flood of migrants and boasting about his city being welcoming, made an in-person visit to the new Brooklyn site on Monday.
‘Since last summer, New York City has opened five Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers and 80+ emergency shelters to help the 43,000+ asylum seekers who have arrived,’ his office tweeted.
‘We’ve offered them shelter, food, legal assistance and other resources as we await national support.’
Signs hang on a metal fence outside the Brooklyn shelter
Around a dozen migrants left the Manhattan hotel on Wednesday evening, heading for the new Brooklyn shelter
The tense standoff was resolved overnight before a bitter cold snap hits the Big Apple, which is set to send temperatures plummeting below zero.
As the protests raged on earlier this week, the stalemate turned hostile as activists held umbrellas to block cameras while abuse was hurled at reporters.
One reporter, filming for Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, had his camera smashed by a migrant.
While the police warned the migrants of action, no arrests have yet been made.
Despite being offered food and shelter at the new facility, many rejected the move until they were cleared by city officials.
After being evicted from their rooms at the Watson Hotel over the weekend, hordes of activists blockaded the sidewalk while the migrants camped around them for days.
Some of the migrants hurled abuse at the news media, and one reporter had his camera struck and damaged by a migrant
Activists held up umbrellas to block news crews on Wednesday amid tense scenes outside the hotel
Efforts by New York authorities to move the migrants throughout the week included desperate pleas from evangelical pastor Rev. Erick Salgado, who serves as assistant commissioner in the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
He addressed the throng of migrants in Spanish yesterday evening, assuring them that their new shelter would be an improvement on the sidewalk outside the hotel.
‘We are looking to transfer most of the asylum-seekers to the HERRC in Brooklyn,’ he said, referring to the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC).
‘We all know it’s going to be getting real cold and windy and we want to make sure they have the resources they need this winter.
‘Yesterday we went over there to the Brooklyn facility with many of them.
‘The majority of them want to go and stay there in Brooklyn – they have transportation. We have buses. And many of the local churches I put in place to help them over there as well.’
As the situation worsened and the migrant group appeared to dig in, New York residents voiced concerns over the city’s handling of the influx in recent times.
After the encampment emerged seemingly overnight outside The Watson Hotel following their eviction, commuters raised fears over their own safety in the city.
One single mom told DailyMail.com that she has been forced to carry pepper spray to try and make it through the frenzy on her way home.
Erika Quintero, who lives across the street from the tent-laden encampment on West 57th street, told DailyMail.com that the migrants have already been ‘disruptive’ in the few hours since they set up camp.
‘Last night there was so much noise,’ said Quintero, who lives alone with her 9-year-old son in the residential building.
‘Loud music, people screaming,’ she said. ‘My son was trying to take a class on zoom. It’s very frightening.’
Erika Quintero, a single mom who lives across the street from the encampment with her young son, told DailyMail.com she’s been forced to carry pepper spray just to make it through the rowdy mass to her building, producing the cannister as proof.
Migrants are seen camping outside the Midtown Manhattan hotel earlier in the week, with food provided by the city authorities
The outdoor encampment emerged soon after the migrants were evicted from the hotel, spurring officers from the NYPD to arrive on the scene just a few hours later