The following is an updated and expanded version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

 

A contentious battle pitting neighbor against neighbor has apparently been averted, as the temporary shelter that was being built to house 1,000 male asylum seekers at Orchard Beach parking lot has been halted. As reported, Mayor Eric Adams did an about-face on Monday, Oct. 3 and is now moving the controversial shelter to Randall’s Island.

 

Workers had begun erecting several massive tents on Monday, Sept. 26, but three demonstrations were since organized opposing the site by local Republican Party candidates, Tina Forte, who is challenging Democratic incumbent, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and John Greaney, who’s currently challenging Democratic Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (82 A.D.)

 

During the third and final protest at Orchard Beach on Oct. 3, attendees used words like “Nazis” to describe Adams administration officials who had proposed to house immigrants bused from the southern border to Democratic-run cities like New York, at the site.

 

At the Oct. 3 protest, a former Republican candidate for Assembly District 80 and leader of the Allerton Merchants Association, Gene DeFrancis, told the angry crowd, “I’m there with the men and women of Venezuela that want to get the heck out of there, but like I tell every single Bronxite, stay here, don’t run, because we’re united.”

 

Moments later, DeFrancis, who served in the U.S. Navy, told the crowd, “You don’t know what it’s like to be a community leader in The Bronx, where they laugh and say, ‘I’m moving to Florida. I’m getting out of here. I can’t take it anymore.’ These men and women behind me, we’re not going to take it. We’ll die here if we have to. This is the hill we’ll die on; this is our home!”

 

At a previous protest, also at Orchard Beach, on Saturday, Oct. 1, Forte challenged Ocasio-Cortez to come to Orchard Beach the following Monday for a debate on the issue, before using the congresswoman’s well-known initials, AOC, to brand her an “All Out Communist.” Norwood News contacted the congresswoman’s team for comment. We had not received a response as of press date.

 

Unhappy that her speech wasn’t being recorded by a News 12 camerawoman, who was off to one side of the gathering, Forte was later heard screaming out, “News 12! Where are you News 12? News 12, don’t hide!” Then, directed by the crowd, Forte approached a News 12 reporter with a group of about 20 behind her and demanded, “News 12! Why don’t you tape me? Want to interview me?”

 

In the face of the News 12 camerawoman, who was by then recording Forte, the candidate continued her rant, saying, “Play everything I say, and don’t cut pieces out and put what you want. Put in everything that’s really going on here. Taxpayer money is paying for these illegal immigrants, unvetted, coming to this community, thanks to Eric Adams and the policies of the Liberal Left.”

 

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR for Congress, Tina Forte, calls out News 12, when the network reportedly failed to record Forte’s speech to a crowd protesting a temporary housing shelter for asylum seekers at Orchard Beach in the Northeast Bronx on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. The shelter is now being moved to Randall’s Island. Video courtesy of David Greene

News 12 later aired the bizarre encounter, during which Forte went on to declare Oct. 1 as “Adopt an Illegal Immigrant Day,” adding, “So, Democrats, line up, pull up in your car, and take one home to your house.”

 

Observing the demonstration was Melanie Miholics, who said she is currently experiencing homelessness. She told Norwood News she stays at Orchard Beach during the day “because it’s safe,” and either stays with friends or sleeps in her car at night.

 

Looking out at the giant tents that were being erected at that stage, Miholics said, “They’re [asylum seekers] getting these tents which are beautiful. I wish they had them for the Americans that were suffering with the coronavirus, but it’s very scary because you don’t know anyone’s background. It’s scary for them, and it’s scary for us.”

 

A FEW DOZEN protesters demanding the City halt a temporary housing shelter which was being built for asylum seekers on Orchard Beach parking lot, confront counter-protester and immigration supporter Steve Swieciki, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. The shelter is now being moved to Randall’s Island. Video courtesy of David Greene

Alleging she had been denied admittance to a Bronx homeless shelter for women, Miholics added, “I don’t get this shelter, immediate medical care, gas… I sleep in my truck.” She added, “I went to the shelter, but they put me last on the line.”

 

As Miholics was speaking, a large group surrounded a group of four City Island residents, who had arrived to support the asylum seekers. Members of both opposing groups then held their ground during a heated exchange. Herbert H. Lehman High School teacher and City Island resident, Steve Swieciki, drew the ire of the opposing group as he quietly stood, holding a small cardboard sign that read, “Look at these racist a——s.”

 

There were further heated exchanges between several women, one wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, and another with a “Trump 2024” hat, and Swieciki’s group. Some of the woman said they were also concerned for the asylum seekers due to potential flooding and poor heating at the site.

 

Meanwhile, asked by Norwood News if he and his three colleagues were with any organized group, Swieciki replied, “Well, these are my neighbors. We’re not, like, part of any formal group, but we actually didn’t even know Tina Forte. I know she’s opposing AOC, but I didn’t know anything about her. I came here because I saw a flier that they were opposing the asylum seekers being located here, and I support helping asylum seekers.”

A FEW DOZEN protesters demanding the City halt a temporary housing shelter which was being built for asylum seekers on Orchard Beach parking lot, confront counter-protester and immigration supporter Steve Swieciki, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. The shelter is now being moved to Randall’s Island. Video courtesy of David Greene

Swieciki also said he had concerns over the conditions at the site but overall, he was in favor of supporting and providing shelter to the immigrants. Asked if he had considered whether his sign and appearance might have put him and his neighbors in harm’s way, Swieciki replied, “Yeah, that’s what we do. No, but if it’s for the right cause, absolutely.” A protester opposing the site then asked Swieciki, “Why is this the right cause? They come here illegally?”

 

Norwood News contacted the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs for comment on the group’s allegations of illegality. We did not receive a direct response but were referred to a Home Security factsheet on the “implementation of the credible fear and asylum processing interim final rule,” which outlines the various ways in which asylum seekers can seek asylum.

 

The debate heated up once again, with officers sitting in an NYPD van watching from nearby. When a steady stream of rainfall arrived, everyone left.

 

A FEW DOZEN protesters demanding the City halt a temporary housing shelter which was being built for asylum seekers on Orchard Beach parking lot, confront counter-protester and immigration supporter Steve Swieciki, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. The shelter is now being moved to Randall’s Island. Video courtesy of David Greene

 

Before the Saturday rally ended, DeFrancis said Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lee Zeldin, had been “working on his schedule” to attend a follow-up rally scheduled for Monday, Oct. 3, the likely reason many TV networks showed up at the Monday rally. Zeldin was a no show, however, and the mayor announced later that evening the site move to Randall’s Island, after a weekend of flooding, saying the safety of asylum seekers remained his top priority.

“Following this weekend’s storms, New York City Emergency Management determined that, while we would be able to put in place the necessary ponding mitigation measures, relocating the Orchard Beach humanitarian relief center to Randall’s Island is the most efficient and effective path forward, and work is underway to make this move.”

 

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who had previously raised her own concerns with the site location around potential flooding and lack of adequate transportation links, said that while she was grateful to the mayor for moving the shelter site to Randall’s Island, she had similar concerns over flooding with the Randall’s Island site also.

 

On Friday, Oct. 7, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) joined Queens Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, Queens State Sen. Jessica Ramos, and Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif delivered a letter to the mayor urgining the administration to reconsider the proposed shelter move to Randall’s Island and to consider indoor, temporary shelter options instead. The letter was in direct response to the mayor’s plans that were already underway to relocate approximately 500 asylum seekers from the tent encampments on Orchard Beach to the new site on Randall’s Island.

 

In the co-authored letter, the elected officials outlined a series of policy proposals that they said would serve as an alternative to the relief center model. “These proposals ensure asylum seekers have access to vital resources, can stay in safe, indoor temporary shelter, and have a path to obtaining permanent housing,” they said. More specifically, the letter called on Adams and his administration to do the following:

• utilize closed union hotel rooms for temporary shelter as soon as possible;                    
• consider using the Jacob Javits Center as a welcome center and resource hub, given the Javits is in close proximity to the Port Authority, where many asylum seekers will continue to arrive, and is well-equipped to serve all of the aforementioned functions;
• ensure asylum seekers have the information they need to enter the shelter system and are aware of their right to shelter;
• decrease the average length of shelter stays, which has ballooned in recent years due to unnecessary barriers to permanent housing placement, to free up more beds for new arrivals;
• expand CityFHEPS eligibility to asylum seekers and other non-citizens to take pressure off the shelter system and move people into more stable housing;
• increase staffing capacity at the NYC Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Social Services (DSS) to allow the City to move through the backlog of CityFHEPS and Section 8 discrimination cases and free up space in the shelter system; and
• require every shelter set-up to adhere to right-to-shelter mandates and designate the Department of Homeless Services to manage any new shelters and ensure compliance.

 

CityFHEPS is a rental assistance supplement, administered by DSS, to help individuals and families find and keep housing. To read the letter in its entirety, please see the attached document or click here.

Meanwhile, with the battle line now moved to Randall’s Island, long simmering disputes among neighbors in the Northeast Bronx have been postponed for now or at least until the annual Columbus Day parade in Morris Park, which takes place later this month, and could bring demonstrators opposing the holiday out onto the streets once again.

 

On Nov. 10, the mayor announced New York City would soon open a fourth Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center that will serve asylum seekers. As the estimated number of asylum seekers in New York City surpasses at least 23,800, this specific humanitarian relief center will assist newly arriving single adult men, and provide them with a range of services, in addition to ensuring they can reach their desired destination, if not New York City, city officials said.

 

This humanitarian relief center will be located at the Watson Hotel in midtown Manhattan and will include 600 rooms to serve asylum seekers. City officials added that while they continue to arrive, the speed at which the number of single adult males seeking asylum in New York City has slowed in recent weeks and, as such, the city will demobilize the Randall’s Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center next week.

 

Occupants at the Randall’s Island center will be offered transport to the Watson Hotel beginning next week. Humanitarian relief centers will become the first touch point for arriving asylum seekers, helping people by immediately offering shelter, food, medical care, case work services, and a range of settlement options, officials said. 

 

“We continue to welcome asylum seekers arriving in New York City with compassion and care. This Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will provide asylum seekers with a place to stay, access support, and get to their final destination,” said Adams. “The city is currently caring for over 17,500 asylum seekers, a number that continues to grow steadily. We will continue to pivot and shift as necessary to deal with this humanitarian crisis, but it’s clear that we still need financial assistance from our state and federal partners.” 

 

Since the latest humanitarian crisis began, City officials said the City has, “largely on its own, taken fast and urgent action, managing the arrival of a rapidly increasing number of asylum seekers, with virtually no coordination from the states sending them, opening 58 hotels as emergency shelters and three humanitarian relief centers, setting up a navigation center to connect asylum seekers with critical resources, enrolling children in public schools through Project Open Arms, and more.”  

 

Norwood News recently reported how teams from NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx, and their partners, are volunteering their time over the course of several Saturdays in November to provide medical and other services to children of asylum seekers in The Bronx.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.