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Migrants are getting fed up with the hustle and bustle of New York City, and are leaving for Canada on buses paid for with taxpayer money.
As migrants arrive in NYC, National Guard soldiers have been stationed in the Port Authority bus terminal to hand out free tickets for shuttles heading upstate towards the Canadian border.
City Hall sources said the move was part of a ‘re-ticketing’ plan to help migrants work their way to Canada, according to The New York Post, where president Justin Trudeau has been outspoken about building a haven for people in need.
Some of the migrants taking the National Guardsmen up on their offer told The Post they were heading to Canada because they felt it would be more welcoming for them and provide better opportunities than the United States.
The news comes as a large group of migrants was publicly ousted from a ritzy midtown hotel they’d been housed in, and Mayor Eric Adams has been desperately trying to convince that the city’s shelters are a safe and hospitable option.
Migrants camped outside the Watson Hotel in midtown Manhattan after they were kicked out
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been desperately trying to solve the city’s migrant crisis
NYC City Hall has been paying a number of organizations to assist in their re-ticketing program, according to The Post.
One such organization was Catholic Charities Community Services, which said it had helped ‘thousands of new migrants’ relocate out of NYC.
A spokesperson for Catholic Charities said some of those migrants ‘reported their desire to relocate to other cities, and Catholic Charities provided some assistance for their travel expenses.’
One of those migrants participating in the re-ticketing plan was Raymond Peña, a Venezuelan who left NYC early Sunday morning.
‘The military gave me and my family free bus tickets,’ he told The Post. ‘I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family.’
Those buses travel as far north as Plattsburgh – just shy of the Canadian border – where local van and taxi services bring them the rest of the way and drop them where Canadian police can gather them.
‘There’s gotta be 100 people a day,’ driver Tyler Tambini, 23, told The Post. ‘I do this all day. They get dropped off and I take them the rest of the way.’
The service Tambini drives for charges up to $50 to transport individuals, and families for $90.
Migrants get dropped steps from the Canadian border, where they cross and are apprehended by Canadian police.
Migrants camped outside the Watson Hotel in Manhattan. They have been forced to relocate to temporary housing facilities
Migrants bundle up against the winter cold outside the Watson Hotel in Manhattan on February 1
Representatives from City Hall did not comment on how much the re-ticketing program cost, and instead said it was merely a part of its longstanding plan for migrants.
‘As we have said since the beginning of this crisis, our goal is help connect asylum seekers who want to move to a different location with friends, family, and/or community and, if needed, re-ticket to help get people to their final destination, if not New York City,’ a spokesperson said, according to The Post.
NY Governor Kathy Hochul’s office confirmed the National Guard had been deployed to Port Authority, but did not say where funds for re-ticketing came from.
‘At the request of the city, National Guard members have been deployed to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where they greet people upon arrival, answer questions and direct them to services, including transportation options that they seek,’ a spokesperson said.
Migrants rest outside a makeshift tent on the sidewalk outside the Watson Hotel in Manhattan
Inside a migrant housing center in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Migrants have complained the shelters are unsafe
Migrants outside the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, which is being used as a temporary shelter
Numerous migrants traveling to Canada reported being disgusted by the conditions they faced in NYC, where they felt at risk from homeless people and drug users.
‘I wanted to live in New York because I thought it would be a better future for my daughters,’ said 33-year-old Peruvian Susy Sanchez Solzarno, who was traveling with her family. ‘But as the days went by, I saw insecurity, many homeless people, many people who shout and are disrespectful, and many people on drugs.’
‘I am going to Canada for the safety and future of my girls,’ she told The Post. ‘I only ask God that everything goes well and that Canada is not like the United States.’
Manuel Rodon, a 26-year-old from Venezuela, said he was kicked out of the Times Square hotel where he’d initially been housed and sent to a shelter where he felt unsafe.
‘A lot of the Americans used drugs there,’ Rodon said. ‘I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America.’
He said he knew eight other Venezuelans who had all successfully migrated to Canada.
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‘They all got free tickets, too. It was the same process,’ he said. ‘It took them three days through customs. They are all safe. They live in Montreal.’
He and others said they learned about the ease of migrating to Canada through social media.
‘It is very difficult to get papers in America,’ Rodon said. ‘I need to work, so I am going to Canada.’
Canadian President Justin Trudeau has been outspoken about accepting migrants
Venezuelans board a bus bound for the migrant housing center at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
Adams has been bullish on asking for federal help over the city’s migrant crisis.
Washington has approved $800million in spending to aid the crisis but it will go to various cities across the country.
Even if it were all going to New York, the city will still spend more money on its own to help the migrants, according to ABC7.
However, Adams bragged Sunday that the migrants will live in better conditions than in other cities.
‘People are sleeping on the streets in El Paso,’ Adams said at the rally. ‘There sleeping in airports. I spoke to my colleague in Chicago, people are sleeping in the basement of libraries. No family is sleeping on our streets.’
He added that there are no plans for the city to stop taking in migrants but that they will need extra preparation if the Supreme Court lets Title 42 – the pandemic rule making it harder to seek asylum in the US – expire.
Migrants ride a bus bound for the housing center set up at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
A bus full of migrants arrives at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on February 2
Activists are not happy with the constant moves, saying that it’s not an adequate fix.
‘Now they’re going to be moved to a building that was not designed for living, that the city is gonna have to prepare for people to sleep in, and only for a short period of time,’ Josh Goldfein of the Legal Aid Society said.
‘We’re gonna invest a lot of resources to get this building ready only to dismantle it again, I guess when cruise ships start coming in again.’
The location is also isolated and far away from accessing medical care and opportunities to work.
‘The city has tens of thousands of New Yorkers in shelter currently who were there before the migrants started coming who could move out if they had some assistance,’ Goldfein added.
Despite his proclamations, Adams previously made headlines for saying ‘there is no more room’ after previously stating the city would always welcome migrants.
Buses of migrants have been arriving in NYC since fall when Republican governors, primarily Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, began sending asylum seekers from the border to largely Democratic-leaning cities.
