The New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested 10 people during a demonstration against buses transporting asylum seekers on Staten Island on Tuesday, ABC News reported.
Officers responded to a report of an impromptu protest blocking a vehicle carrying asylum seekers in front of a local daycare center.One of the detained protesters, a 48-year-old man identified as Vadim Belyakov, reportedly faces multiple charges for allegedly resisting arrest, ABC News. report. Nine other people arrested (eight men and one woman) were issued summonses for disorderly conduct and subsequently released.
“The crowd reached capacity, resulting in a chaotic and combative crowd confronting both police and incoming buses transporting groups of immigrants to be housed at the location,” the NYPD said in a statement. according to To The Hill.
10 arrested after protesting asylum seeker bus in New York https://t.co/lh8hZHej5l pic.twitter.com/rvinWNrvKt
— The Hill (@thehill) September 20, 2023
The protest is reportedly a reaction to the city’s Department of Social Services (DSS)’s decision to use a former daycare center as a shelter for migrants. The protest forced a bus carrying 20 migrants to turn around and return to Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel, which is currently being used as a temporary migrant reception center. (Related: Biden administration spends more than $100 million on New York City as illegal immigration surges)
The incident comes amid ongoing debate in New York over the growing influx of immigrants. Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams has previously voiced criticism of both Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant surge. Some 130,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the city in the past 18 months, the newspaper reported.
