Protesters rallied Sunday outside a former college dorm in the Bronx, up in arms over City Hall’s plan to convert it into the Big Apple’s latest emergency shelter for asylum seekers.
As many as 75 angry demonstrators — armed with signs that read, “Affordable Housing, yes! Migrants, no!” and, “No land grabs! Save our Children” — stood in the pouring rain to slam plans for the onetime Manhattan College housing site.
“Over our dead bodies!” shouted Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a frequent critic of the city’s handling of the unprecedented migrant crisis.
Across the street stood about 50 counter-protesters.
“If you look at the demographics of both groups, on the one side, the pro-migrant group,” Sliwa said. “They’re young progressive socialists for the most part. [On the other], these guys, senior citizens, many of them first-generation immigrants from Russia, Eastern Europe, who fled communism.”
Unlike earlier protests, no one on either side of the debate was arrested Sunday.
The recently renovated seven-story, 83-unit former college dorm on West 238th Street has become the latest tipping point for residents in the five boroughs pushing back against the migrant shelters.
The building was purchased by the Stagg Group for $18 million earlier this year and was to be a homeless shelter.
Last week, a senior official at the company announced that it had been in talks with the city Department of Homeless Services “as it relates to migrant housing and families.”
Under the deal, the city would pay the owners $2.4 million in annual rent — the equivalent of $2,400 per unit a month to house some of the thousands of asylum seekers who flood into the Big Apple every week.
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More than 110,000 migrants have flowed through the city since the spring of last year, with some 60,000 still being housed and fed in the five boroughs, according to City Hall.
As with other emergency shelters announced by the city, the former Manhattan College dorm has sparked protests from locals who fear unvetted migrants could cause issues.
Sliwa has led several of the protests — including the one Sunday — and has been arrested by the NYPD at some of them.
Counter-protesters have made their presence known at each of the rallies — gathering in smaller but equally boisterous numbers to support the migrants.
“As a Jew, we know what it is to be scapegoated, and migrants are being scapegoated,” said Naomi Sharlin, a member of Jews for Radical Economic Justice, outside the ex-Bronx dorm on Sunday.
“As Jewish people, we see this scapegoating and recognize that this is a failure of leadership,” she said. “A leader who is failing and struggling decides to scapegoat instead of acknowledging that it’s a challenge and building coalitions.”
Earlier this month, Sliwa threatened to shut down bridges connecting the city to Staten Island after city officials converted a former Catholic School there into a 300-bed shelter for asylum seekers.
The former St. John Villa Academy has been a particular hotbed for anti-migrant protesters.
Mayor Eric Adams has estimated that the migrant crisis will cost the city about $5 billion by the end of the fiscal year, as City Hall grapples with the overwhelming number of asylum seekers — and has reached the limit on finding space for them. That price tag will balloon to $12 billion over three years without more federal and state aid, he said.
