Getting arrested in New York City doesn’t bar migrants from taxpayer-funded shelters, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration admitted Tuesday.
“We don’t say that [you] can’t come back into the shelter because you’ve gotten arrested,” said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom during Adams’ weekly off-topic press conference in City Hall.
The revelation followed a Post report that found migrants have been flooding the criminal-justice system, with one Manhattan cop estimated that “about 75%” of arrests in Midtown are migrants, mostly for cases involving robberies, assaults, domestic incidents and selling counterfeit items.
“I’m sure that there’s a lot of arrests that have come from a lot of different groups that come here, especially groups that might not be able to work,” Williams-Isom added.
She also confirmed that the city is not tracking migrant arrests. The NYPD is prohibited from asking suspects about their immigration status.
Adams’ Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack jumped in when pressed on the high number of migrant arrests reported by police sources, saying that while suspects can go back to city shelters, they’d lose housing if they violate a code of conduct.
But that code is limited to incidents inside the shelters and alleged illegal activity anywhere else appears to have no impact on eligibility for city housing, according to a review of the code of conduct by The Post.
The mayor’s team said City Hall has been focused on helping asylum seekers get on their feet as a deterrent to new arrivals turning to crime.
“We want to connect people to their community-based organizations so that we can get them connected to work, get them out of shelters,” Williams-Isom said.
“We’ve been really proud that over 150,000 people have made their way out of the shelter so far.”
