(Matthew Doarnberger, Headline USA) Locals in the Clinton Hill District of Brooklyn, N.Y., organized in protest of an illegal immigrant shelter over the weekend.
Longtime residents expressed concerns over rising crime attributed to the immigrant influx.
“It’s not about anti-migrants,” said Renee Collymore, the Democratic liaison for the local State Assembly district, who organized the protest. “It’s about safety first.”
Earlier this month, a shooting left two of the illegals dead and injured another. Another was charged with a stabbing that left the victim in critical condition back in June.
In response to the recent violence, New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed concern, while insisting that most of the immigrants were not criminals deserving of this stigma.
“They’re extremely dangerous,” he said. “We’re dealing with violent individuals that are not representative of the overwhelming number of people who are coming here as migrant asylum seekers.”
The initial shelter opened in July 2023 and was largely embraced by the Clinton Hill community. However, a second shelter opened in April 2024 without their knowledge and caused the population of illegals in the neighborhood to surge to around 4,000.
According to the NYPD, the area holds the largest concentration of outside of Randall’s Island, where the migrant shelter is estimated to harbor some 64,000 illegals, although the public-owned island has relatively few other residents.
Locals started raising concerns earlier this year—with issues of excess trash, loitering, panhandling and homelessness at the forefront. Town halls and rallies against the shelters displayed signs with messages such as “Shelters are not helping the neighborhood,” “New York is not the only sanctuary city,” and “Taxpayers first.”
Unsurprisingly, council member Crystal Hudson sent a letter to Adams requesting more money to try to fix the crisis.
“The reality is that an influx in the population requires an increase in the resources our communities need,” she said. “… My office and my neighbors have been asking for your assistance for the better part of a year to no avail.”
It was around that time that a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office highlighted the ever-growing migrant problem in the city: “We manage hundreds of people who continue to arrive in our city every day while also handling the 65,000 currently in the system.”
