Eric Adams under fire to remove gang members from NYC shelters: ‘Matter of urgent public safety’
With shelter arrests on pace to soar 64% this year, a bipartisan group of pols is demanding Mayor Adams immediately boot migrant gang members “as a matter of urgent public safety.”
The push comes as the city grapples with a baby-faced pack of violent migrant gang-bangers targeting locals and tourists in armed heists in Midtown.
High-profile crimes allegedly committed by migrants include thugs who beat up two NYPD officers in Times Square, and the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old migrant at a city shelter on Randall’s Island.
“It has become evident that foreign-based criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua have been using taxpayer-funded shelters across the city as a base for their illicit activities, which include organized theft, robbery, assaults, sex trafficking, and in some cases, murder,” Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) wrote in a Thursday letter co-signed by five other Republicans and four Democrats.
“This is supported by numerous news reports, victim and witness accounts and NYPD data that shows spikes in these criminal patterns in neighborhoods near migrant shelters.
“Unfortunately, due to the confluence of recent criminal justice reforms and the sanctuary city laws in this city and state, these foreign national criminals have been operating with impunity,” Borelli wrote.
At the beginning of the city’s migrant crisis in 2022, there were 1,600 arrests at city shelters, up 53% from 1,045 the previous year and 73% from 924 in 2020, according to NYPD records.
Last year, shelter arrests dropped 11%, to 1,424, in part because Adams — against the wishes of the Council’s far-left majority — capped how long migrants can stay in public shelters.
Currently, single adults have a 30-day limit on stays before they can reapply, while families have 60 days.
However, the arrests are soaring again.
As of the end of June, the NYPD reported 1,168 arrests in city shelters, putting the city on pace for 2,336 collars by the end of the year — a potential 64% surge compared to last year.
The projected tally would be 91% higher than 2021, the year before the migrant surge started.
The mayor has the legal authority, through multiple court settlements, to have the city begin “proceedings to remove these bad actors from city shelters,” the 10 pols insisted in their letter.
“We believe it is a reasonable standard to require that residents of taxpayer-funded housing do not commit crimes or associate with those who do — which is a standard also applied in federal public housing,” the pols said.
“While we do not all agree as to how to fix our country’s broken immigration system or whether the city should be required to shelter non-citizens, we do agree that New York taxpayers should not have to subsidize criminal activity that puts us all in danger,” the missive continued.
“And there is nothing — no law, no court mandate, no policy — to stop you from putting an end to this injustice other than the political will to do so,” they wrote.
In addition to Borelli, the letter was signed by Brooklyn Dems Mercedes Narcisse, Susan Zhuang and Kalman Yeger, Queens Democrat Robert Holden, Queens Republicans Joann Ariola and Vickie Paladino, Brooklyn Republican Inna Vernikov, Bronx Republican Kristy Marmorato and Staten Island Republican David Carr.
Adams said he agreed the city “should use whatever legal means we have to remove those who participate in illegal behavior” and wants to discuss it with Borelli.
“We want the same thing,” Adams told The Post during an unrelated event in The Bronx. “No one should come here to our city and inflict violence on everyday New Yorkers.”
“I will find out what [Borelli and other council members are] talking about,” added the mayor. “If [Borelli] has some ideas, I’m with it. I believe he’s a very rational person.”
Earlier, Adams reps boasted overall NYC crime under Adams has dropped nine straight months and insisted many crimes committed by migrants have occurred outside the shelters.
“While we do not run criminal background checks on our guests, if there are incidents where [migrants] violate our code of conduct, they are subject to consequences, including losing their spot at a shelter,” said mayoral spokesperson Amaris Cockfield.
As of last week, over 219,700 migrants have entered New York City’s intake system since the spring 2022, and 60,000 remain in the city’s care in shelters.
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya
