Migrants who arrive at the Port Authority Bus Terminal are no longer being met with free buses and are instead directed to walk nearly a mile to an intake center, according to city officials.
Members of the National Guard stationed at the Manhattan transit hub have since at least July 4 distributed flyers to migrants with directions to the Roosevelt Hotel on E. 45th Street, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ office and advocates. The city has since May run a temporary shelter and checkpoint at the hotel for new arrivals who came to New York after crossing the Southern border.
The change in way the city handles its bus service for migrants — which has been funded by the state-led MTA — comes as the Adams administration continues to grapple with a migrant crisis that has pushed the city’s shelter population to over 100,000. Over the last year, tens of thousands of migrants have arrived in buses at Port Authority, many of them from Texas.
Kate Smart, a spokesperson for Adams, said on Saturday the city is redirecting bus service provided by the MTA. Instead of taking migrants from Port Authority to the Roosevelt Hotel, the agency’s buses will take migrants from the Roosevelt Hotel to their final shelter placements, Smart said.
But the change by the city means many migrants arriving in New York by bus must now walk three blocks north and four avenues east across a densely-populated island they’ve never visited before.
Families with children make up the vast majority of migrants under the city’s care, according to city data.
“These families and individuals, many of them with disabilities and many with very young children, have already experienced trauma at home and on their long journeys here,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society. “Forcing them to walk almost a mile to shelter intake facilities in the sweltering heat is shameful and cruel.”
He added: “The MTA buses are one of the very few contributions the governor has made to…
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