Plan to house migrants in NY school gyms prompts boycott
PARENTS are refusing to send their children to school over plans to house migrants in up to 20 school gyms across New York City.
Locations have been earmarked to shelter asylum seekers after the lifting of Donald Trump’s Covid-era immigration policy – Title 42 – caused an influx.
Eric Adams, the mayor, said the gyms, which are separate to the classrooms but on school premises, were “one of the last places we want to look at”.
“None of us are comfortable with having to take these drastic steps,” he added. It came as relations between Mr Adams and Joe Biden deteriorated, with the mayor criticising the president over his handling of immigration and crime.
Mr Adams has accused the White House of not providing enough funding to cope with migration. Last month, he said: “The president and the White House have failed this city.”
The mayor was expected to be a key part of Mr Biden’s 2024 re-election attempt, but has been dropped from a campaign advisory board.
Parents have been protesting outside schools in Coney Island and Brooklyn, some camping overnight over fears refugees would arrive in the early hours.
Gabriella Vizhnay is one of dozens who waited outside PS 172 in Sunset Park on Tuesday morning, where rows of camp beds had been erected in the gym to be used as a temporary shelter.
Mrs Vizhnay, 50, whose son Jacob, nine, is a pupil at the school, said she had been protesting outside the school since Monday morning, only returning home for a 20-minute nap.
She and scores of other parents were not planning to send their children to school yesterday. Mrs Vizhnay said: “We cannot sleep.” She said 210 parents had mobilised, creating a Whatsapp group, and that she had more than 1,000 signatures criticising the plans.
Mrs Vizhnay, who emigrated to the US from Mexico 20 years ago, said she is not “anti-immigration”. “It’s not that we don’t want them [the migrants], we welcome them. The school is just not a suitable place for them.”
The expiration of Title 42 last Thursday led to a surge of migrants, predominantly from Central and South America, arrive at the US border with Mexico. The policy gave the authorities powers to deport migrants without allowing them to claim asylum.
‘None of us are comfortable with having to do this. The president and the White House have failed this city’