NYC immigrants ticked off about migrants crammed into neighborhood rec center: ‘What the hell!’
The thousands of migrants recently flooding into the Big Apple are facing a new round of pushback — from New York City immigrants.
First-generation Brooklyn immigrants were up in arms Sunday over City Hall jamming dozens of newly arrived male asylum-seekers into the Sunset Park Recreation Center, saying the facility has long been a beloved community staple — until now.
“People are really upset from the community,” said a first-generation Chinese immigrant who only gave her name as Chen. “All the people use this facility from this community.
“So right now you take away all the benefit to us and give it to them? What the hell!”
An estimated crowd of at least 300 local residents demonstrated outside the Sunset Park facility as they prepare a petition to present to Mayor Eric Adams and city officials.
“Most of the people in this community are immigrants themselves or the children or grandchildren,” said Dyker Heights resident Paul Rodriguez, adding that his family uses the rec center.
“Keep in mind that many of the people who are protesting in particular now are people who probably had a much longer, much [more] arduous journey here than any of the ones who are coming now,” he said. “Let’s be honest.
“Now that they’re here, you have to do better than just simply deflecting blame, pointing fingers and saying, ‘It’s all the fault of Washington, and they better fix it for us because we have no more room,’ ” he said, referring to officials.
Vincent Lu said the rec center, which has a pool and other facilities, is used by “a lot of elderly people” in the neighborhood — who pay to become members.
“All of a sudden they’ve been denied access,” said Lu, 40.
“We collected 100 signatures to show the government that a decision like this that impacts the community, the community should be part of that,” he said. “This is already an overcrowded community. They can’t just do this. And it’s a low-income community, and they put this burden on our community.”
A local mom added, “We use the park a lot, and then they put 100 men here without telling us.
“By the time we got the information is the time they arrived,” the 36-year-old mother said. “We are not against migrants. We are against what the government did. They didn’t give us the resources and just dumped the people here.”
At least 60 migrant men were bused to the Sunset Park facility Saturday and spent the night sleeping on cots supplied by the city, according to a report by Gothamist, which first revealed the situation.
The move came as City Hall is struggling to keep up with the influx of immigrants, with more than 90,000 bused into the Big Apple since last spring.
The city is currently providing shelter and services to more than 50,000.
On the same day that cots were set up at the Sunset Park rec center, more than 50 migrants were put up at McCarren Park in Brooklyn’s trendy Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods.
