(The Center Square) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is considering a curfew at the city’s homeless shelters amid complaints about migrants shoplifting and wandering neighborhoods begging for money.
The Adams administration is considering the plan as the ‘sanctuary’ city continues to wrestle with the influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving amid a historic surge along the U.S.-Mexico border, the New York Post reported.
The issue came up during a closed-door briefing with local elected officials when Adams administration officials were asked about whether they are considering a curfew at the city’s migrant shelter facilities.
Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola noted that New York City’s migrant shelters, which are currently housing nearly 70,000 asylum seekers, aren’t subject to the curfews that traditional NYC Department of Homeless Services shelters require.
“I think a curfew should be set because homeless people [staying in NYC shelters] have curfews,” Ariola, a Republican, told the Post. “If it’s good enough for homeless New Yorkers it’s good enough for migrants.”
Neighbors who live near the tent shelters built by the city in Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn have complained about migrants panhandling and going door-to-door begging for food and clothes.
Reports of crimes around the shelters, including a fatal stabbing at a tent city on Randall’s Island over the weekend, have raised public safety concerns, the newspaper reported.
The Post quoted Brooklyn resident David Fitzgerald, who described the situation in his Marine Park neighborhood as an “invasion.”
“I see them sitting outside stores … outside the mall and going around to all the houses in the neighborhood, knocking on the door looking for money,” he told the newspaper.
During Thursday’s City Council meeting, Adams administration officials said they are considering installing metal detectors at migrant shelters but didn’t elaborate further.
In August, a group of Staten Island officials called on the Adams administration to set a curfew at a migrant shelter, but the site was eventually shut down.
New York City has seen an influx of more than 130,000 migrants over the past year and has spent more than $1 billion on housing and other needs for migrants. Adams has proposed deep budget cuts to cover those costs, estimating that the city will spend upwards of $10 billion over the next couple of years.
This week, the Adams administration began issuing eviction notices to more than 2,000 migrants who overstayed the city’s 60-day limit on emergency shelter.