NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block has set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbors: "Immigrants are not safe here.鈥
The message, recorded in six languages, blares all day from a loudspeaker on Scott Herkert's well-groomed front lawn on Staten Island, exhorting migrants to 鈥済o back鈥 to another part of the city because the community doesn鈥檛 want them. It urges people brought to a temporary shelter inside a long-vacant Roman Catholic high school not to get off the bus. The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches.
It is one of several ways some people have let shelter residents know they are not welcome. Hundreds of protesters have also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere.
The women and families placed by the city inside the former Saint John Villa Academy have heard the message loud and clear.
鈥淲e have to close our eyes and close our ears,鈥 said Aminetou El Alewai, a 39-year-old woman from Mauritania who moved into the shelter last week. 鈥淲e are good people. We are not criminals. We came because of problems in our country.鈥
As thousands of migrants in New York City, officials have scrambled to , turning to tent facilities, school gyms and parks to comply with a state law requiring housing for the homeless. Though Staten Island is home to only a small fraction of those shelters, they have generated an outsize share of animosity.
The hostile reception coincides with increasingly dire rhetoric from Mayor Eric Adams, who warned last week that the migrant crisis would 鈥渄estroy New York City.鈥 The Democrat has insisted that the more than 100,000 who have arrived so far are welcome, but he has said the cost of housing tens of thousands of people could be as much as $12 billion over the next three years. Adams has rejected allegations from advocates of as 鈥減rops鈥 in an ongoing bid for federal money.
Staten Island is known for leaning conservative and Republican in a mostly liberal, Democratic city.
Herkert, a New York state court system employee, also has a tarp on his lawn painted with a profane version of the phrase, 鈥淣o way!鈥 Gesturing at the largely empty street in front of his home Tuesday, Herkert said the new shelter has upended his block's quiet charm and brought toilets and dumpsters to the other side of his fence.
While the loudspeaker message 鈥 in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Urdu, Chinese and English 鈥 warns that the former school is infested with roaches and mold, Alewai said she has found it to be perfectly clean, if a bit uncomfortable.
As Alewai spoke to Associated Press reporters on a sidewalk, parents picked up their children from a neighboring private school, directing nervous glances and, in one case, harsh words at the new arrivals.
鈥淚 am sorry for the trouble of the woman who was just talking,鈥 Alewai said in French. 鈥淚 came as a refugee to New York and they brought me here. Indeed, I am not comfortable here.鈥
Both employees and residents of the shelter said protesters have cursed at and threatened them, frequently playing loud music late into the night. Employee and lifelong Queens native Gabrielle Dasilva said she was recently told to go back to her home country.
A spokesperson for the mayor's office, Kayla Mamelak, said the administration was 鈥渄isturbed to learn about the false messages being played outside the St. John鈥檚 Villa Academy respite site鈥 and police are working to 鈥渕aintain the peace in the area.鈥
鈥淎s always, New York City continues to provide care for asylum seekers with compassion and care,鈥 she said.
City Councilman David Carr, a Republican who attended Saint John Villa Academy, defended the audio recording as protected First Amendment activity and said his constituents have good reason to worry about the high cost of housing migrants.
鈥淭his is an opportunity for folks in the neighborhood who are angry to demonstrate that constructively,鈥 Carr said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just trying to ensure that their voices are heard.鈥
John Tabacco, a right-wing media personality and candidate for city comptroller, said he collaborated on the effort with Herkert and the loudspeakers messages have clearly resonated with neighbors.
鈥淭here have been a lot of concerned citizens out there, and they鈥檝e been spending a lot of time doing some good old fashioned civil disobedience,鈥 he said.
Around the corner, John Gurriera, a 72-year-old resident of Staten Island, said he was disappointed by the reaction from some of his neighbors, which he described as 鈥渘ot very Christian.鈥
鈥淭his is New York City,鈥 he added. 鈥淲e all came from someplace else.鈥
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Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
