Georgia Butler, a NYCHA Queensbridge Houses resident, says that residents were told to be at a food pantry at 11 a.m. to pick up a turkey, but migrants arrived much earlier to wait in line. “They was first in line for the turkeys this morning,” Butler told Fox 5 New York. “They tell you to be there at 11 o'clock. You get there like 10:30, 10:45, but they already out there. The line is from over there, to over here.” Fox reports that free food giveaways, particularly during the holidays, have become a source of growing tension between New Yorkers struggling to get by and migrants dependent on the system for their survival. Last month, as the news outlet noted, an altercation between a resident and migrant became so heated that someone ended up hospitalized. “Why do we have to take the butt of everything?” Butler asked. “Okay. This Community here is already suffering.” Since the spring of 2022, roughly 143,000 illegal aliens have come to New York City, with more than 65,000 living in the city’s shelters. To cope with the growing migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled a plan for steep budget cuts for New York City, including plans to defund the public library system, cutting hours in half, even as roughly 49 percent of the city’s eight graders are proficient in reading. Local officials have pleaded with Adams for help to address the simmering tensions between residents and migrants. After petitioning the mayor’s office, councilmember Julie Won was able to secure $50,000 to increase the number of hot meals served at shelters. However, she fears that the budget cuts could place additional strain on her community. “We would never turn anyone away for a meal,” she told Fox 5. “But there simply just is not enough for both NYCHA residents and the migrant shelter residents.” Won added, “People are going hungry right now. People are frustrated with not having enough to eat, not having heat and hot water in their shelters or in their houses in NYCHA. And people want to make sure that they just have our, their basic needs met like any human would anywhere. And that's what's causing the tension.”New York City residents lodged complaints after illegal aliens took all of the Thanksgiving turkeys that were being given out to struggling families in the Queens borough.
