New york has been shuttling asylum seekers from shelters all around NEW york city to randall’s island, a place described as an “extermination camp,” “cop city,” and an “ice trap.” Uprooting them from the communities they’ve built and the jobs they’ve secured. Access to and from Randalls Island is nearly impossible without a car. Public transportation is limited, making it inaccessible for many impoverished individuals displaced there, adding to the unlivable conditions present on the island.
randall’s island hosts a mix of facilities including a homeless shelter, migrant shelters, NYCHA housing projects, the New York State Police academy training camps, FDNY training camps, NYPD harbor, counter terrorism facility.
The campaign for utilizing Randalls Island and the closure of other already inadequate migrant shelters across the city is fueled by anti-migrant sentiment. “We’re not scrambling every day to open new shelters—we’re talking about closing them. We’re not discussing how much we’re spending—we’re talking about how much we’ve saved. And thanks to today’s announcement, in a few months, we’ll focus on how much we’re investing in restoring Randall’s Island’s incredible fields and parks for community use,” says Piggie Adams. Randalls island is to close by the end of February, further displacing an already displaced community.
The city of new york is determined to criminalize and exterminate the impoverished, adding 300 pigs to the trains during late hours when people are attempting to survive the code blue weathers. This is not exclusively a new york issue, or an asylum seeker issue, this affects us all, with calls being made for “the cuffs to be taken off of ICE” and expected raids from Chicago and throughout the country.