Lady Gaga's dad warns migrants influx is creating 'chaos' in NYC
Restaurant owner Joe Germanotta describes drugs and prostitution plaguing the Upper West Side as migrants flood Manhattan.
Father of pop singer Lady Gaga argues the migrant crisis is creating "chaos" in New York City.
"Ever since they moved in, it's become chaos," Joe Germanotta, a restaurant owner, said on "America Reports" Monday. "It's really changed the Upper West Side from back when it was the seventies. We're back. We went backwards."
Germanotta also shared what he has seen in the Upper West Side neighborhood where an American Musical and Dramatic Academy residence hall is set to become a migrant shelter.
"At night it starts at about 11:00. They congregate in the center of Broadway with their motorbikes. And there must be, I would say, 20 to 30 people sitting on the benches and on the wall. There's smoking, there's smoking marijuana. There's some drug dealing going on. There's prostitutes out there," he said.
According to a report from the New York Post, about 500 migrants are camped out at the Stratford Arms Hotel, one of many New York City residential buildings that have been transformed into a housing facility for migrants.
New York City has seen nearly 100,000 migrants arrive since last year. While it is a small fraction of the millions that have hit the border during the current migrant crisis, officials say it has left the city overwhelmed.
"There's about 500 people in a 400 room property on my block. As I understand it, in the next by the end of September, the 500 that are there are going to move out because of the new 60-day rule where they can stay 60 days and then they have to move on. But then we'll have another 500 brand new residents in the hotel… which means we'll go through this process all over again" Germanotta said.
Recent data shows the city has 194 shelters housing migrants, but even the nearly 200 shelters have not solved the crisis.
"One would think that after opening 117 locations, they'd have a handle on how to manage the area and the influx of people," Germanotta told host John Roberts.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that the sanctuary city’s ongoing migrant crisis threatens to "decimate" it, as he accused border states of creating a "funnel" for sending migrants.
"We have created a funnel. All of the border states have now took the funnel right to New York City," he said on CBS News.
Adams said the crisis could cost the city $12 billion by the middle of next year without policy changes and additional help from the state and federal government. On Thursday, he warned that the crisis had national implications.
"New York City is the economic engine of this entire state and country, if you decimate this city, you're going to decimate the foundation of what's happening. Look at Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and now hear the governor of Massachusetts," he said.
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Adams was referencing the announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to declare a state of emergency and call for more federal support -- including work authorizations for adult migrants and a comprehensive immigration reform in Congress.
A DHS official told Fox News Digital that in FY 2023 it has provided more than $2.8 million in funding to the city of Boston through FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program. The official also said that the administration "will continue to collaborate directly with city and state officials to coordinate our efforts and we continue to call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform."
Meanwhile, New York City in June received more than $100 million in funding
"And so when people say ‘well we gave them a $100 million,’ – towards a $1 billion bill? What table are we dining at?" Adams said
Germanotta said parts of the city like the Upper West Side have become an "avoidance zone" due to the heavy presence of migrants.
"Our residents in the building are fearful of going out at night. There's security inside the building, but the security company that's inside the building was told not to police anything outside the building," he said.
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While the area has recently received additional New York Police Department resources, the city is still struggling.
"As of tomorrow, I'll be meeting with the chief of patrol from one Police Plaza. What we're going to discuss is how can we make it safer, quieter, less loitering," Germanotta said.
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Fox News' Adam Shaw and Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.
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