10 arrested in New York protest against bus of asylum-seekers

New York City authorities said 10 protesters were arrested Tuesday night after blocking a bus carrying asylum-seekers on Staten Island. 

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said officers responded to a call of an impromptu demonstration happening in front of a local day care center. 

“The crowd swelled to a capacity leading to disorderly and combative individuals confronting both police and the arriving bus which transported a group of migrants to be housed at the location,” NYPD said in its statement. 

Police arrested 10 people, nine of whom — eight adult men and one woman — received summonses for alleged disorderly conduct and were later released. 

The 10th, a 48-year-old man, is facing multiple charges after allegedly engaging in resistive and combative behavior with an officer who was attempting to effect an arrest. 

The initial protest came as a response to the city’s Department of Social Services decision to use the former day care center as a shelter for bused migrants. Authorities had closed the street in front of the former facility, according to ABC News. 

The bus, which was carrying 20 migrants, turned around after being met by protesters and returned to the back to the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, which is being used a temporary migrant intake center. 

New York officials have butted heads over the surge of migrants into the city, with Mayor Eric Adams (D) repeatedly criticizing Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and her office’s handling of the issue, as well as the Biden administration. 

In the past year and a half, about 130,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the city.