A community in Brooklyn, New York, is becoming so overwhelmed by the presence of illegal migrants that residents are beginning to protest…almost daily. The problem is getting so bad, in fact, that even the New York Times – a left-leaning news outlet that is by no means friendly to conservatives and Republicans – is reporting on the problem.
On August 3, a piece in the news outlet described how a “Brooklyn Enclave” is now “uneasy” with the presence of 4,000 migrant neighbors now living in a shelter in the neighborhood.
The problem started last year when huge numbers of illegal aliens started to arrive in New York City in buses sent from Florida and Texas. The respective governors of the states, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, caused a stir when they announced in press conferences that their states were being overwhelmed by the sheer number of new arrivals and that they should begin relocating migrants to “blue” parts of the country. Texas famously moved at least 50 illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a wealthy neighborhood that former President Barack Obama calls home. Abbott claimed that he wasn’t responsible for the two planes that took the migrants to the area, though he did announce that he would begin sending buses to New York City.
And they arrived.
In February, 2024, data showed that Governor Abbott had bussed more than 102,000 migrants to cities around the country, spending $148 million on the project. Florida Governor DeSantis had sent more than 1,200 from Florida to other states under a program that began in 2022, though that number is likely to have increased since. According to data from the Migration Policy Institute, Florida spent $615,000 on the two flights to Martha’s Vineyard – a move that was widely regarded as a stunt.
Stunt or not, though, it caught the attention of the country – and while some places may have forgotten what happened that year, communities like Clinton Hill in Brooklyn are now feeling the effects of this movement.
What’s the Deal In Brooklyn?
Clinton Hill is one of the most left-leaning parts of New York City – and Brooklyn. Out of all the city’s boroughs, Manhattan has long been the most Democrat, with Brooklyn typically leaning more to the right. As the years have passed, however, “out of towners” who moved to New York City from elsewhere in the country have been forced out of Manhattan, with rental prices rapidly increasing, and into Brooklyn neighborhoods that were formerly home to New York natives.
As New Yorkers have slowly been moved out of the city, with some moving to the very outskirts of southern Brooklyn and others moving even farther afield, Brooklyn has become more and more Blue. Clinton Hill’s was almost unanimous in its support for Joe Biden in 2020, with 94.5% of residents casting their vote for the Democrats. It’s for that reason that many on social media have suggested that the problems in the region are fair, and that the people there voted for it – but that’s not necessarily the case across all of New York City. Remember, it’s not just Clinton Hill that’s suffering. New York City has seen an enormous influx of migrants in recent years – the data suggests that as many as 205,000 illegal aliens have arrived in the city since April, 2022 – and that more than 100,000 of them had been processed through the city’s shelter system by August of last year. We don’t know just how many have come in since, but we do know that the whole city is hurting. So much so that Mayor Eric Adams was forced to announce a series of sweeping cuts to public services that will impact tax-paying residents.
In November, 2023, Adams announced that police numbers in the city would be slashed, and that cuts would be implemented in virtually all other areas of public services to the tune of $110.5 billion. He revealed that the city had spent a total of $1.45 billion in the fiscal year 2023 handling the migrant crisis, and said that he expects a further $11 billion would be spent on the crisis across 2024 and 2025.
Life As A Migrant in NYC
The New York Times report that final shone a light on this story to an audience that might not even be aware of what’s going on revealed how warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront have become home for thousands of migrants.
“Its cavernous floors are packed with men from Senegal and Guinea who sleep next to men from Venezuela and Ecuador in cots with white sheets. They keep their few belongings stowed in suitcases and backpacks besides their beds. Families with children, about 900, sleep in partitioned cubicles in a separate building,” the author writes.
Migrants are reportedly allowed to stay in the shelters for 30 or 60 days at a time, and when that limit comes up, they’re allowed to request an extension. And they always do.
During interviews, migrants said that they were grateful for the shelter, but that they were largely unhappy with the quality of the free food they were being given.
If you read the piece, which you can find here, you’ll find plenty of talk about the lives of the migrants – but little is said about the impact their presence is having on the lives of residents. The protests now have become frequent, with local people insisting that their political leaders move the migrants out of their communities. In late July, the Democratic liaison for the 57th Assembly District, Renee Collymore, stood up and said, “No more.” Collymore said that the “minute you start robbing,” in reference to the migrants, she will no longer support their presence in her community.
“The minute you start robbing, not in my backyard. The minute you become a criminal, not in my backyard. The minute you lay and put trash all over my street where I live, not in my backyard,” Collymore said.
And that’s a Democrat.
Life in New York City is not what it used to be. That’s why huge numbers are leaving. But perhaps – just, perhaps – if the Democrats realize this is a problem, things might start to change.
It’ll just depend on who’s in the White House by January next year…
