New York City Mayor Eric Adams implemented a curfew for four illegal immigrant respite centers in the Big Apple over community complaints about violence, panhandling, shoplifting, and door-to-door requests for clothing, among other issues.
“My constituents are terrified,” City Council member Joann Ariola told FOX 5 New York. “They have people that they don’t know at their doorbell. They usually have a child with them. They have their telephone, their iPhone and on it, it says, in English, ‘I’m a migrant from Floyd Bennett Field, please give me money.’ It’s very, very concerning because at times, they find them on their property.”
The 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew at the four centers applies to some 1,900 people.
"Part of it is just sort of to help us better manage things at the site. Part of it is community feedback," said New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, reports CBS New York.
While the mayor started with four locations across Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, Iscol said Adams is considering imposing curfews at many of the approximately 200 shelters and respite centers in the city.
"The mayor has asked us to take a hard look at figuring out how we do it across the system. The question is to whether it makes sense to do it across the system," Iscol added. "One of the things we're always looking to do is figure out what can we do to keep people who are in our care safe, what can we do to have less of an impact on the communities where some of these shelters and respite centers are placed, and one tool of ours to do that is curfews."
While there are some exceptions, such as for legal or medical needs, emergencies, work, and school, illegal border crossers who violate the curfew three times in 30 days will be kicked out of the centers.
Ariola called the curfews a "great first step," but said they should apply to all shelters.
"If our homeless New Yorkers are given curfews in city-run shelters, migrants should be given the same," she said on X.