Men sheltered at a Hell’s Kitchen hotel collectively opposed the Adams administration’s decision to move them to the new Red Hook facility.
Migrant housing concerns stem from southern border officials like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chartering buses of asylum seekers to major cities like New York. The in Red Hook’s Brooklyn Cruise Terminal was announced recently and opposed by immigration advocates from the NYIC, the Legal Aid Society, and the Coalition for the Homeless due to concerns of flooding and distance from public transit.
Fonseca added migrant men are concerned about the cold at the Red Hook facility despite the city’s claims of a heated, temperature-controlled structure. He said many are not used to the frigid New York City winter, with some suffering from pneumonia since arriving. “The problem [with being in Brooklyn] is it would take 25 minutes getting here…some have just arrived here and just gotten jobs,” said Ramirez in Spanish. “We want to be able to take care of ourselves, we want to work, the opportunity to work. These are all things that would jeopardize our efforts to work towards freeing ourselves from being dependent on others.