Jail barge not fit to shelter asylum seekers, say frontline workers

Frontline groups working with immigrants say they will fight any effort to allow New York City to temporarily house asylum seekers in former detention centers.

The opposition follows comments from Mayor Eric Adams, who has publicly floated the idea of repurposing facilities like the Vernon C. Bain Center — also known as “The Boat” — to combat what he refers to as a “migrant crisis.” In September, the mayor announced that city will close the facility soon, and inmates will be moved to Rikers Island. The Boat has been moored off the East River near Hunts Point for 30 years. 

In an August proposal to Gov. Kathy Hochul, city officials also recommended that asylum seekers be temporarily housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, the same federal jail where sex offender Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.

For Alana Sivin, state director for New York Criminal Justice Reform, the idea of welcoming asylum seekers to the city by sending them to Rikers Island — “probably the worst place there is” — is unfathomable.

“A place that has a legacy of abuse, a place that has a legacy of death, a place that has a legacy that is rooted in slavery,” Sivin said of Rikers.

While Sivin noted federal intervention is needed to address the influx of asylum seekers, she encouraged city and state officials to provide short-term housing, crisis services and caseworkers to any migrants in need.

“Our city, our state, our country has, for too long, looked at incarceration as a band-aid to every single problem,” she said. “And what we find is that it never solves the problems, ever. In fact, it just makes them worse.”

In a public statement issued Sept. 15, Theodore Moore of the New York Immigration Coalition panned the idea of using the jail barge as a shelter facility, noting asylum seekers “deserve a dignified place to live.”

“For this reason, The Boat as a temporary shelter would be a ridiculous and expensive band-aid that ignores the death and trauma that place has caused,” Moore said.

Instead, Moore argues that providing housing vouchers to asylum seekers would save the city $3 billion each year, compared to the cost of opening emergency shelters.

Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, also released a statement last month that the city should halt any considerations of housing asylum seekers on The Boat or Rikers Island.

“People detained there have compared the stifling conditions to a modern-day slave ship,” Mack said in a statement. “The only natural light inside comes through tiny portholes that cannot be opened.”

In a statement to the Mott Haven Herald/Hunts Point Express, the Abolitionist Law Center expressed their opposition to any plan that would repurpose a jail facility “to house those exercising their human right to seek asylum.”

“City, state, and federal governments have a moral duty to provide care and resources for those seeking relief,” the organization said. “Above all, we must prioritize the humanity of asylum seekers and those incarcerated.”

Last month, Mayor Eric Adams was accused of xenophobic rhetoric and fear-mongering by stating that, due to the influx of migrants, “The city we knew, we’re about to lose.” 

“Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to,” Adams said at the time. “I don’t see an ending to this.”

The Herald/Express reached out to the Mayor’s Office, asking whether Adams would commit to not using detention facilities to house asylum seekers. The Mayor’s Office did not respond. 

But in August, Adams noted that “everything is on the table” when it comes to addressing the so-called migrant crisis.