New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he ‘slept like a baby’ in a new mega-migrant shelter following a days-long controversy over an encampment of migrants who refused to relocate to the shelter last week.
‘I slept like a baby, it was warm. I had my nice little blanket. That’s my favorite blanket. I’m like Linus, you know, on Charlie Brown,’ Adams said in an appearance on Fox 5’s ‘Good Day New York.’ The mayor paid an overnight visit to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal relief center in Red Hook on one of the coldest recorded nights this year.
Last week, a group of migrants staying at the Watson Hotel through a taxpayer-funded relief program refused to relocate to the new Red Hook facility. The group of individuals camped outside in protest on the sidewalk of the $300-per-night hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
The city prepared to move these migrants, specifically single adult men, from the Watson Hotel to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal facility, but faced pushback last week from over 50 individuals who camped outside the hotel. The NYPD eventually cleared the remaining holdouts days later from their sidewalk encampment.
Some individuals left the hotel for the migrant crisis center, but returned after claiming the facility was lacking in heat and water. Adams was quick to respond to accusations that the shelter forced migrants into inhumane conditions. The mayor’s Friday night stay in the 1,000-cot shelter appears to be the latest move to convince naysayers otherwise.
‘I have my favorite blanket that I just hug up on and I had pleasant dreams, got up the next day, had breakfast and sat down and spoke with asylum seekers,’ Adams said
The Red Hook migrant shelter is one of five in New York – dubbed ‘Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers’ – created to house the 42,000-plus illegal migrants that have entered the Big Apple since last spring, according to a statement from the mayor.
The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center was scheduled to open after Adams said NYC had reached ‘its breaking point.’ The center, which will close this spring ahead of cruise season, will ‘provide adult men with a place to stay, access support, and get to their final destination.’
