Loudspeaker Message Outside NYC Migrant Shelter Warns New Arrivals They Are ‘not safe here’; Staten Island Resident Sets Up Loudspeaker Blaring Out Messages Against Arriving Migrants: ‘Immigrants are not safe here!’

Loudspeaker message outside NYC migrant shelter warns new arrivals they are ‘not safe here’:

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.”

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 “go back” to another part of the city because the community doesn’t 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.

“We have to close our eyes and close our ears,” said Aminetou El Alewai, a 39-year-old woman from Mauritania who moved into the shelter last week. “We are good people. We are not criminals. We came because of problems in our country.”

As thousands of migrants continue to arrive in New York City, officials have scrambled to open new emergency shelters, 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 the migrant crisis would “destroy New York City.” The Democrat has insisted 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 using migrants as “props” in an ongoing bid for federal money. —>READ MORE HERE

Staten Island resident sets up loudspeaker blaring out messages against arriving migrants: ‘Immigrants are not safe here!’:

A resident of Staten Island is so fed up with the migrants being sent to a shelter in his neighborhood that he set up a loudspeaker and sign to dissuade them from settling in. 

Scott Herkert has been outspoken in his opposition to the migrant shelter that was set up at a former Catholic high school in his neighborhood, and he has now ramped up his efforts against the controversial policy.

The loudspeaker tells migrants they are being lied to and that the shelter has cockroaches and rats. The messages are recorded in six languages.

“This building has mold and is unsafe for you!” the recording says. “You’re being lied to! This building is not safe for humans! The community wants you to go back to New York City! Immigrants are not safe here!”

Herkert also set up on his lawn a large blue banner reading, “NO F%*KIN WAY!”

Residents of Staten Island have voiced their opposition to the shelter in various ways, including public protest and lawsuits. Some of the migrants have responded by refusing to live at the shelter, while others have chosen to ignore residents’ opposition and move in to the former high school.

That opposition has led to a feud between the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York. Mayor Eric Adams has demanded that other cities in the state take up some of the burden of housing migrants, while Gov. Kathy Hochul has argued that the city is best suited to provide services for the migrants. —>READ MORE HERE

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