New York City Mayor Eric Adams ordered curfew at dozens of migrant shelters across the region following the Times Square shooting of a tourist that led to the arrest of a teenager.
The situation comes as the suspect in police custody was found to have been staying at a migrant shelter prior to the incident. The new curfew will run from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. at 20 migrant shelters that house a total of 3,608 people.
This number represents a fraction of the 200 emergency shelter sites that are helping to house the tens of thousands of migrants entering the city every month. In a Sunday statement, Adams' administration noted that imposing a curfew will help ensure citywide safety.
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said that the city continues to lead the nation in managing this national humanitarian crisis. She noted that this includes prioritizing the health and safety of both asylum seekers in the city's care and New York residents who live in communities surrounding the emergency shelters that they manage, as per the Gothamist.
A staff attorney for the Homeless Rights Project, Joshua Goldfein, said that the new curfew is "totally counterproductive." He noted that people are working, and most of the time, they are working late.
He argued that many people are working doing delivery for apps and it does not make sense to impose the additional burden of the curfew on them. The Times Square incident resulted in authorities arresting a 15-year-old boy, who was said to have immigrated from Venezuela last year.
The teen was also said to be a suspect in two other incidents, including another shooting in Times Square as well as a robbery in the Bronx. Officials said on Saturday that the suspect would be charged as an adult.
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Times Square Shooting Incident
The widening of curfew rules comes after city officials have publicly keyed on crimes related to migrants, who can appear stuck in difficult straits without access to work. The 15-year-old suspect reportedly shot a tourist and opened fire on a police officer on Thursday, according to the New York Daily News.
During a news conference three days prior to that incident, New York Police Department (NYPD) Edward Caban said that a "wave of migrant crime" has hit the city in recent months. On the other hand, there were those who pushed back on the suggestion that the roughly 66,000 asylum seekers in the city's care are driving a significant increase in crime statistics.
Several studies have found that immigrants are historically linked to significantly less criminal behavior than native-born Americans. During a Friday news conference in Brooklyn, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected the notion that migrants are driving a crime surge.
The suspect in the Times Square incident has been identified as Jesus Alejandro Rivas Figueroa who was last known to be staying in New York City's Upper West Side. He is facing two counts of attempted murder as well as assault and criminal possession of a weapon charges, said NBC News.
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