The heated rhetoric about the migrant standoff in midtown Manhattan has overshadowed the harsh reality.

For many, the scene played out last week in Hell’s Kitchen bewilderment: why do migrants sleep on the frozen sidewalk instead of settling for bed and food in Brooklyn?

The migrants’ protest over their eviction from the Watson hotel has ignited heated political rhetoric from all sides.

Once again, migrants were drawn into the political maelstrom.

But the uproar has obscured an important reality: the thousands of migrants who have arrived in recent months are increasingly frustrated and angry at life in New York.

In an interview with Daily News before the camp was cleared, migrants at the Watson Hotel said they felt they were being treated like political pawns, shuffled from place to place and fed with empty promises as politicians scramble for funding and border control. politics.

Watson Hotel

Last year, the standoff between Mayor Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott came to a head when buses were sent from the southern border to New York. Now, an influx of more than 43,000 migrants, mostly from Latin America, has become a point of contention between Adams and President Biden as the mayor presses the federal government for funds and resources to deal with the crisis.

The confrontation at the Watson Hotel caused even more controversy. The Adams administration sounded the alarm against disinformation and outside influence, as cameras flocked, defenders lashed out and pundits on the right cursed.

But migrants say their struggle is not guerrilla. They say they I want to work, find an apartment and start a new life. Many of those who lived at the Watson Hotel were relocated there after being housed on the now closed site of Randall Island. The prospect of being sent to another remote location in Red Hook—far from transit, work, and opportunities—was a game-changer. According to the migrants, the confrontation outside the hotel was an opportunity to be heard.

“We want to be treated like human beings… We are fighting to be able to work and live together to become independent,” Ivan Pereira, a Venezuelan migrant, said standing outside Watson this week. “It’s a cure, it’s wrong.”

Pereira is among dozens of migrants who told the Daily News that the protest was not only about being transferred to the Red Hook facility, but also about the obstacles they faced trying to create a new life for themselves in New York.

Watson Hotel

Pereira, 33, came to the US last year. He was thrown into several different New York City orphanages, including Randall’s Island. The thought of returning to the city’s Emergency Response and Assistance Center, or HERRC, was depressing for him.

“The right thing is that we come, feel comfortable and can start working,” said Pereira. “What we went through is wrong. They sent us to Randall’s Island where we got sick, we were cold, the food was good, but we were cold and we were so remote there on the island. They took us out of there for the same reason, because of the cold, many of us fell ill in a short time … So they dragged us out and sent us here. And now they’re going to give us a cold place again?

The confrontation began on Sunday night, when, with a half-hour warning, some migrants boarded a night bus to Red Hook. HERRC. Seeing the object, many immediately turned around and went back to the hotel. As videos and photos of the mega-sanctuary circulated in WhatsApp group chats and word of mouth, anger began to mount.

When they were kicked out of their old rooms to make room for their families, they started camping outside.

Since Isaac Quintero arrived from Venezuela three months ago, he has two goals: an apartment and a stable job. He couldn’t get it either. Quintero hoped the protest stance would help.

Watson Hotel

Quintero, like many others at the Watson Hotel, was placed at the hotel after initially taking up residence at the Randall’s Island campground, which closed in November.

“They lied about everything,” Quintero, 21, said of the city. “I was told that we would come to a hotel and then we would end up with an apartment and they would help pay for it.”

He is frustrated by the amount of fuss he says is jeopardizing his job as a janitor at an Upper Manhattan school.

The move to Red Hook meant another obstacle to a new life in New York.

“We just want a decent place to live. It’s not political… I want to stay here [outside the hotel]to stay here for the best deal. It’s wrong, there are such conditions,” said Anthony Hernandez, an immigrant from Venezuela.

Migrants arrive at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday, February 2, 2023.

On Wednesday, as tensions escalated between city agencies and lawyers and the protests gained national attention, Kennedy Gonzalez became even more frustrated and depressed. He decided to leave.

Gonzalez, 37, said the migrants’ initial message was lost in layers of political confusion.

“Those of us who came did not become dependent on the government, on the fact that they gave us food, work, that they did not move us. [from the hotel]. This is a lie,” he said. “We must move on. We have to work to pay for the apartment, for our things. I ended up with a story about how we can’t eat on our own or that the government is going to help me. It’s a lie. You must know how to move forward. You must do something with your effort and determination. Leave the responsibility to us.”

Within three days, migrants began to feel that their voice in all of this was being downplayed and that, once again, they were being used as political pawns.

Watson Hotel

On Wednesday afternoon, Gonzalez leaned against the scaffolding outside the Watson and looked around. In front of him, groups of migrants huddled together, wrapped in blankets for warmth. The NYPD on duty did not allow them to set up tents or tarps, so the migrants resorted to stacking on cardboard boxes and suitcases full of their belongings. Gonzalez took off the gloves he had been given, rubbed his hands to keep warm, and pulled out his phone.

“Do you know TikTok?” he opened the app, typed “Watson Hotel” and watched a video of the confrontation. He settled on one that portrayed it as a block party. It read: “Going to the Watson Hotel to find some buddies to go to the party.”

“Look what they say about us… it makes me feel bad, you know? They say things like “we don’t want to work”.

After the camp was cleared and the protest ended, some wondered what impact it had.

“I was there when the police came, the feds came, the garbage trucks came to take us out,” Ivan Pereira said. “It was very terrible. I felt that what we did was not needed by anyone, but here we are strong … The strength in this is in immigrants.

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