Photo: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images News / Getty Images
A bus carrying 20 asylum-seekers from Manhattan to a facility on Staten Island was forced to turn around after protesters blocked its route. When local residents learned the bus was bringing migrants from The Roosevelt Hotel to the former Island Shores Senior Living Facility, they showed up to protest the decision to use the facility to house the migrants.
"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," the New York City Police Department said in a statement.
Officers arrested ten people during the protest. Nine people were given summonses for alleged disorderly conduct and released. One person, Vadim Belyakov, 48, was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and obstructing government administration.
While the police tried to remove the protesters and arrange an alternate route to the facility, the passengers requested to return to The Roosevelt Hotel, and the bus turned around.
While New York City officials have said they still plan to use the 288-bed facility to house migrants, local residents vowed to keep protesting.
"As I told them, they don't have enough handcuffs, they don't have enough cops, they don't have enough cars. We're going to be out here 24/7, 365, and the illegals are not going to want to come here. They should stay in Manhattan," Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, told WABC.