Receiving City Community Organizations Stand in Solidarity with New York City Migrant and Mutual Aid Organizers Protesting Watson Hotel Evictions
On Jan 29, 2023 Mayor Adams evicted dozens of migrants from the Watson Hotel in New York City. Migrants were told they were being sent to Red Hook Marine Terminal, where the city opened a congregate shelter in Brooklyn. The site at Red Hook Marine Terminal, a former freight transport facility, is reported to be freezing cold, with limited bathrooms, no privacy, nowhere for people to securely store their belongings and far from public transportation. If migrants refused to go they could either sleep on the streets or be put on a bus to another city, following in Governor Abbott of Texas’ footsteps. Migrants organized themselves to protest the evictions and inhumane conditions at the Red Hook Terminal facility and were met by police retaliation.
Community organizations and mutual aid groups in DC, Chicago, and Philadelphia stand in solidarity with NYC migrant and mutual aid organizers resisting the Adams administration’s anti-immigrant policies. “DC has been receiving migrants bused from Texas for almost ten months so we are acutely aware of the failure of local government to step up and provide our new neighbors with the dignified welcome they deserve,” said Jennie Saldana from the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network. “We strongly condemn Mayor Adams’ actions and uplift the demands for housing for all unhoused New Yorkers.”
Since April 2022, Governor Abbott has been busing migrants from the southern border to northern cities as part of a racist, political stunt aimed at Biden. In May 2022, Governor Ducey of Arizona started their own busing program to DC, which is still happening under Governor Hobbs. Over the summer the Mayor of El Paso, Texas joined in as well and began sending their own buses to New York and Chicago. While communities have been consistently showing up to greet migrants, these buses have spotlighted the bipartisan failure of local and federal governments to provide support for newly-arrived migrants.
“As organizers on the ground in Philadelphia, we publicly denounce the cruel and heartless actions of elected officials in New York City that put our migrant brothers and sisters at risk,” said Erika Guadalupe Nunez, Director of Juntos in Philadelphia. “We have seen time and time again when elected leaders do a public show of supporting immigrant communities, they then throw our communities under the bus once cameras are gone. We lift up the demands of the migrants evicted from the Watson Hotel in New York City, and join their call for safety and shelter for all.”
“We are disgusted to see the cruelty of our local governments happening at the same time as they denounce the inhumanity of Governor Abbott. It is time for mayors across receiving cities to step up and prove that their declarations of "welcoming" migrants will be backed by policies that protect the safety and well-being of all migrants,” said Linda Brito from Centro de Trabajadores Unidos - United Workers' Center in Chicago. “We need long-term solutions not showmanship from our local governments. There are lives at stake. We join migrant and community organizers in solidarity and denounce the callous actions of Mayor Adams.”
Democratic mayors have mirrored the racist actions of Republican politicians in their intentional neglect toward migrants seeking to resettle in and contribute to their communities. We echo the sentiment of millions of people in the United States who support greeting migrants with a dignified and compassionate welcome. We affirm our solidarity with the migrants evicted from the Watson Hotel in New York City, with migrants seeking safety and shelter everywhere, and with every person who is unhoused or displaced. We join the call of migrant and mutual aid organizers for the mayor and government of New York City to ensure safe, secure, and dignified housing for all.
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The Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network comprises 20+ DMV area community organizations and hundreds more individual volunteers committed to supporting migrants being bused to DC from Texas. Anchored by Peace House DC, Beloved Community Incubator, East of the River Mutual Aid, and Sanctuary DMV, the network has been showing up to welcome our new neighbors since April 2022 through solidarity not charity.
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos - United Workers Center is a community organizing group with deep roots in the Southeast Side of Chicago that builds power among low-wage and immigrant workers to advance systemic change to meet the demands of immigrant community members to dismantle systems and institutions rooted in racial-capitalism that exploit and oppress our communities.
Juntos is a community-led, Latinx immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. We believe that every human being has the right to a quality education and the freedom to live with dignity regardless of immigration status.
New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia builds community across faith, ethnicity, and class in our work to end injustices against immigrants regardless of immigration status, express radical welcome for all, and ensure that values of dignity, justice, and hospitality are lived out in practice and upheld in policy.
PRESS CONTACTS:
D.C. | sanctuarydmv2017@gmail.com
Chicago | lbrito@ctu-iwp.org
Philadelphia | lupita@vamosjuntos.org