Mayor condemns ‘numerical minority’ after 10 arrested at Staten Island migrant shelter protest

Mayor Eric Adams condemned the behavior of Staten Islanders protesting a new migrant shelter after 10 people were arrested during a demonstration there on Tuesday.

Tensions came to a head on Staten Island Tuesday evening after it was confirmed that a former senior living facility would become a migrant shelter. The NYPD said protesters gathered in front of the new shelter at 111 Father Capodanno Blvd., with a number of people confronting both police and a bus filled with migrants arriving at the facility.

It was the latest in a string of similar protests that residents of Staten Island have staged since the city started providing shelter to a small percentage of its roughly 59,000 asylum-seekers there.

“We have 8.3 million New Yorkers, and we cannot allow the numerical minority that show an ugly display of how we deal with the crisis be used as an example of what New Yorkers are doing,” Adams said on NY1 Wednesday morning.

According to the NYPD, there were no physical altercations between the protesters and migrants or the bus driver. But eight men and one woman were given summonses for disorderly conduct and one man was arrested on multiple charges, including assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, police said.

Former Republican candidate for mayor and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has been a recurring speaker at similar Staten Island protests, as well as a rally held near another migrant shelter location in Queens last month. Sliwa had promoted the events as peaceful protests in which he would engage in civil disobedience, resulting in his own arrest on several occasions.

One Staten Island resident erected a speaker system outside a migrant shelter at a former Catholic school earlier this month, blasting messages like “Immigrants are not safe here” directly facing the building, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking on Fox 5 Wednesday morning, the mayor acknowledged the tone of frustration that has permeated the constituencies who frequent those rallies.

“I'm very clear of the frustration and anger, and New Yorkers have expressed that. But they're not banging on the doors of buses, they're not spewing hateful words towards ethnic groups. That is not how we're showing our frustration,” Adams said. “We'll manage this crisis, but we're not going to do it with violence and we're not going to do it with hateful terminologies spewed at individuals.”

Adams made similar comments on NY1 and Pix 11 Wednesday morning during television appearances on a separate topic, renewing his demands that the Biden administration step in to help.

The mayor was criticized for his rhetoric around the issue earlier this month, when he said the influx of migrants “will destroy New York City” at an event in the Upper West Side. On the other side, Republicans like City Councilmember Joe Borelli amplified his comments, adding that the city was “doomed.”

Another protest at the shelter on Staten Island was planned for Wednesday night, where Sliwa said more arrests were expected.