New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, is imposing curfews on four migrant centers due to increased crime and complaints of door-to-door panhandling.
If this trial run is successful, the mayor is reportedly considering implementing the policy city-wide.
The curfew, according to a report from the New York Post, will be in place from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. each day.
The new policy is based on curfews at homeless shelters in the city. Migrants at the centers are expected to be informed of the changes on Monday, which will go into effect on Tuesday.
An exception will be made for migrants going to work, school, or legal and medical appointments.
The Post reports that the impacted centers "include two in Queens — the Judo Center on 35th Avenue and the JFK Center on North Boundary Road — as well as the Stockton Center on Stockton Street in Brooklyn, and the Lincoln Manhattan Center on Central Park North in Manhattan."
Anyone caught breaking curfew three times in 30 days may be expelled from the centers.
The city claims that the curfew protects migrants and American citizens who live nearby.
“New York City continues to lead the nation in managing this national humanitarian crisis, and that includes prioritizing the health and safety of both migrants in our care and longtime New Yorkers who live in the communities surrounding the emergency shelters we manage,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement to the paper.
Neighbors of the tent city at Floyd Bennett Field have complained that migrants are knocking at their doors and asking for food, clothing, and cash at all hours.
“There’s definitely an invasion of immigrants from Floyd Bennett Field in our neighborhood and I see them sitting outside stores … outside the mall and going around to all the houses in the neighborhood, knocking on the door looking for money,” David Fitzgerald, 62, told the New York Post in December.
“I certainly sympathize with their situation, but to have people knocking at your door looking for food that don’t speak English, it’s annoying. I don’t like it. We have never had this before, ever,” Fitzgerald continued.
Residents of the area have captured the door knocks on their home security cameras.
In January, there was a fatal stabbing at Randall’s Island tent city, and other crimes, including drug dealing, have become rampant.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola told the Post that the curfew is only the first step for the city addressing migrant crime.
“I’m certainly glad to see these curfews finally being put into place, but they should have been mandated from the beginning,” Ariola said. “While I applaud the city for coming to its senses on the curfew issue, I believe this is only the first step. We still need to end our status as a right-to-shelter city, stop the flow of asylum-seekers into the five boroughs, and finally get rid of the tent cities and HERRCs that are draining our city’s coffers and gobbling up billions of taxpayer dollars.”
