NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Staten Islanders are again pushing for the borough to secede from New York City over the migrant crisis, which has led to large protests over shelters for asylum seekers.
The latest protest was this week outside the 300-person migrant shelter at a shuttered Catholic school in Arrochar, St. John Villa Academy, which is now owned by the city. Several people were arrested at a similar protest outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan over the weekend.
Tension are high enough that the city has increased police in the area around the former Catholic school and surveillance cameras have been installed on an adjoining street, according to the Staten Island Advance.
Proposed and established shelters have faced fierce opposition on Staten Island, including at Fort Wadsworth and at an assisted living facility in Midland Beach.
“Nobody wants a migrant shelter in the middle of a neighborhood near a school,” Staten Island Borough President Vite Fossella, a Republican, told the New York Post.
Fossella said the long-simmering notion of secession is “definitely boiling” as the conservative stronghold faces off yet again with the generally more liberal city government.
Republican City Councilman Joe Borelli, who introduced an unsuccessful bill last year to study Staten Island secession, told the Post, “We are a city the size of Miami and Atlanta with a larger tax base, three council members and a borough president who have little say in governing it than asking nicely.”
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told NY1 on Wednesday that the City Council and state Legislature should consider letting Staten Island go its own way.
“I mean, I hear all the jokes all the time that they would love to get rid of Staten Island. Well, this is your opportunity,” Malliotakis said. “I think Staten Island would like to have an opportunity to self-govern.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams was hosting a rally in Foley Square on Thursday to call for expedited work authorization for asylum seekers. Since last spring, more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in the city, and more than 200 emergency shelters have opened in the five boroughs to deal with the influx. Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have said expediting work authorization would allow migrants to get their own housing.
After meeting with senior members of the Biden administration at the White House on Wednesday to discuss New York State’s outsized role in taking in migrants, Hochul said in a statement that she made it clear the federal government needs to do more.
“We focused on a number of immediate and tangible actions, including several that would allow more individuals to work legally in the United States, as well as long-term actions to end this crisis,” the governor said.
“As New Yorkers know, securing expedited work authorization for asylum seekers and migrants has been and remains my top priority,” Hochul continued. “It is the only way to help asylum seekers become self-sustaining, so they can move into permanent housing. I am especially pleased that the federal government has agreed to provide personnel, data, and resources to identify the thousands of individuals in New York who are already eligible, but have not yet applied, for work authorization.”
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