New York City Moves to Shut Down a Growing Migrant Encampment

NEW YORK — New York City officials began clearing out an encampment of homeless migrants on Randall’s Island this week as the city contends with a growing number of migrants sleeping outside.

Dozens of migrants have been sleeping in camping tents, under tarps and on mattresses outside a giant tent dormitory on Randall’s Island, where the city is housing 3,000 migrants. Most are men from West Africa and Latin America who moved outside this summer as Mayor Eric Adams began enforcing stricter rules on the amount of time adult migrants can stay in the shelter system, leading some to be evicted.

On Monday morning, the migrants scrambled to pack their tents and belongings as police officers and city workers scoured the area to collect belongings left behind. Outreach workers from the Department of Homeless Services offered migrants rides to a processing center to apply for a shelter placement, though many were wary after having maxed out their allotted time in the shelter system.

The encampment on Randall’s Island had emerged as a visible symbol of one of the city’s most vexing challenges: a migrant influx that has seen more than 210,000 people arriving from the southern border seeking shelter. Two years into the crisis, the city is still housing nearly 64,000 migrants in hotels, offices and other shelters.

Now, officials are trying to reduce that population without pushing migrants to the streets and escalating quality-of-life concerns among New Yorkers.

The problem also has national implications during an intense election year, though the number of migrants crossing the southern border has plummeted over the past few months. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have used images of disorder and migrants on the streets of New York and elsewhere to attack Democrats about border security and local safety issues.

The city also this year altered its long-standing legal requirement, known as the right to shelter, that obligates the city to provide a bed to anyone who asks for one. To curb the shelter population, the city limited adult migrants to shelter stays of up to 30 or 60 days. They can apply for extensions under certain circumstances, such as if they have applied for asylum.

A majority of migrants who applied for more time have been granted extensions, according to city officials, but a number of them have been evicted.

In a joint statement, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless criticized the encampment sweep, saying that it would disrupt migrants’ search for employment and stable housing and that the shelter system had not offered them enough help.

“These continued sweeps are cruel, confusing, and have a chilling effect on our clients and their willingness to seek City services to which they are entitled,” the statement said.

City officials said they were enforcing the same policy they have applied to other homeless encampments in the city, adding that they had warned migrants of the sweep and sent outreach workers on Friday. They also noted their efforts to help thousands of migrants apply for asylum and work authorization to make them self-sufficient.

“These operations will help improve the quality of life of all New Yorkers who use the public space, particularly those who remain in our care nearby,” Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for City Hall said in a statement, adding that “encampments are not safe or secure for migrants, longtime unhoused New Yorkers, or anyone else in our city.”

The Randall’s Island migrant shelter, an array of cavernous white tent dormitories where men sleep in rows of military-style cots, is on the southwest corner of the island, an isolated strip of recreational parkland on the East River. Since opening in August 2023, the shelter has grappled with outbursts of violence.

In January, three men were charged with manslaughter after a migrant was stabbed to death inside the shelter. In late July, a Venezuelan mother was fatally shot outside the shelter, and two others were injured by a man on a moped, the police said. Another migrant was stabbed in the stomach outside the shelter on Aug. 11.

In response to the violence, police raided the shelter in early August to search for contraband, such as weapons or drugs, though they later said they did not find any.

Some migrants began to sleep outside voluntarily, some selling food and wares during the day, because it felt safer. Clutches of migrants have also been sleeping on streets, in parks and under overpasses.

As their numbers have grown this month, City Hall signaled that it would move to crack down. Last week, police officers confiscated unregistered mopeds, towed illegal cars and targeted some illegal vending outside the shelter.

On Monday, police and city workers returned with garbage trucks and trash pickers in the morning.

“Pack up your things, they are coming to clean,” migrants yelled in Spanish as they lugged whatever they could. City workers picked up bicycles, cooking equipment, tents and umbrellas left behind.

Some migrants followed city workers to apply for another shelter bed. Many others simply shifted to other parts of the park or said they would return later that night or tomorrow.

Emanuel Pabon, 30, from Venezuela, who began camping outside the shelter after being forced out on Aug. 10, blamed the sweep on the violent actions of a few isolated individuals.

“Of course there are some bad people, but for the few bad people, we are all paying the consequences,” he said, adding, “We aren’t an invasion. We aren’t here to invade. It’s that in New York, there’s nowhere else to go.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .