In the 35 years that Elana Chin has lived in the Queens Village area of New York City, she’s never seen it bustling with so much activity. “Generally this is a very, very quiet area where you could hear a pin drop,” she said.
But these days her Citizen’s App has been pinging off the hook. “I’m seeing constant incidents and things,” Ms. Chin told The Epoch Times.
The 65-year-old suspects the noise has something to do with illegal immigrants who have moved into the area. Ms. Chin is worried about her 20-year-old daughter’s welfare.
“I can’t say for sure it’s the migrants causing the incidents but it wasn’t like this before,” she said.
Ms. Chin was among the senior citizens, politicians, and civic leaders who gathered at the Creedmoor Hospital campus near Hillside Avenue this week to voice their opposition to a New York City plan to expand the illegal immigrant tent city adjacent to the Services Now for Adult Persons (SNAP) center.
The 1,000-bed Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) for men was opened in August 2023. The city reportedly has plans to add 170 more beds to the tent shelter site.
“We came here today to say stop overburdening this community,” said state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky at a press conference. “We’ve been good about accepting the asylum seekers, but there’s very little that we can do, except in terms of the budget requests for HERRCs, and we’re taking a look at that.”
Mayor Eric Adam’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Ms. Stavisky was flanked by Assemblyman Edward Braunstein and New York City Council member Linda Lee who is advocating for city council funding and state discretionary funding to add security cameras at the senior center. All three are Democrats.
Currently, there’s only one security camera at the front door.
“If there’s any doors or locks that are broken, we can try to use our funding to fix those because they’re a nonprofit that contracts with the city and also provide resources in terms of staffing that might be necessary,” Ms. Lee told The Epoch Times.
The nonprofit organization serves some 200 seniors with 500 hot meals daily either by home delivery or at the center.
Ms. Lee is also concerned about overloading the transit system in the area, which Bus Q43 serves.
“We’re a transit desert here,” she said. “There’s literally one bus line. So, when you add a thousand plus more people without improving infrastructure, that’s going to be a huge problem.”
Congressman-elect Tom Suozzi was scheduled to attend the event but he was in Washington. Instead, he released a statement in support of his colleagues and SNAP, blaming Congress for failing to address the illegal immigrant crisis.
“I had planned to be with you this morning, but I’m on my way to Washington to set up my office and get sworn into Congress later this week,” Mr. Suozzi said in a statement. “We need to begin working to fix the problems that my constituents are facing. Assemblyman Braunstein, Senator Stavisky, and Councilwoman Lee have my full support today as they speak out to preserve the quality of life here in Queens.
“During my recent campaign for Congress, I spoke about the migrant crisis just about every single day. I even held a press conference right near here at Creedmoor and stated very clearly that I hear the residents who live near Creedmoor don’t feel safe. I’m as sick and tired as they are of the failure of Congress to address the migrant crisis. Washington must stop playing politics with this very serious issue.”
As of January 11, there were 68,400 asylum seekers, according to Ms. Stavisky, and as of Feb. 22, there was a 5 percent drop to 64,800. But, once the City adds the 170 beds, the population of young men in the big tent is expected to increase by 17 percent.
Corey B. Bearak, chair of the SNAP Senior Center board, wants the tent city removed as soon as possible.
“It’s a safety issue,” Mr. Bearak said at the press conference. “It’s a services issue. It impacts our quality of life and it’s really time for it to move.”
When asked after the press conference if the illegal immigrants were walking into the SNAP center, Mr. Bearak said that in the winter or summer, if people needed to come inside to get warm or to cool off, they would not be turned away.
“We are designated by the city to stay open to those purposes and we’re not supposed to differentiate between who comes in for that,” he added. “We were promised from the leadership involved with HERRC that it would not occur and that we would not face those people coming in.”
