As a response to a recent Times Square robbery and shooting involving a 15-year-old migrant, the Eric Adams administration is imposing curfews on more migrant shelters across the city.
Starting Monday, migrants staying at 20 respite centres run by the Housing Preservation and Development will have to be inside by 11 p.m. and stay there until 6 a.m.
The new rules will apply to more than 3,600 migrants, almost half of them being single, adult men.
The curfew policy is similar to the one already in place at homeless shelters in the city, and is meant to improve the management of bed capacity.
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“New York City continues to lead the nation in managing this national humanitarian crisis, and that includes prioritizing the health and safety of both asylum seekers in our care and New Yorkers who live in the communities surrounding the emergency shelters we manage,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement.
“Beginning this week, we will be instituting a curfew policy at our HPD emergency sites, in line with curfews already in place at traditional DHS shelters and NYCEM respite sites that serve migrants and longtime New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. This policy will allow for more efficient capacity management for migrants in the city’s care.”
The Adams administration had been planning to enforce curfews for a long time, and had already done so at four shelters in January.
This was the first significant action taken by Mayor Eric Adams to address the concerns of residents who claim they have been harassed by needy asylum-seekers asking for food and clothes door to door.
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The curfew expansion comes shortly after a migrant teenager who lived at a Manhattan shelter allegedly wounded a Brazilian tourist in the leg while robbing the JD Sports store in Times Square. He then reportedly shot at NYPD officers who pursued him through the crowded streets.
The suspect, Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, and his mother fled to Yonkers with their belongings, where they were caught the next day, prosecutors said.
Most of the shelters affected by the curfew are in Manhattan — such as the Imperial Hotel, The Gatsby Hotel and the Redford Hotel. Five of the shelters only house single, adult men, but they make up nearly half of the migrants who will be subject to the new rules.
