About 1,300 African migrants gathered outside City Hall Tuesday morning hoping to appear at a hearing on the black experience in the city shelter system — with some saying they were promised work visas or green cards if they showed.
Only 250 people were allowed inside for the 10 a.m. hearing, while the hundreds of others who flocked downtown were left outside in a park, where footage showed them chanting and cheering.
The crowd was mostly made up of new arrivals from Guinea, in West Africa, and were apparently drawn to City Hall by an activist group, a source told The Post.
Dozens of migrants said they’d been told by others in the community that they could get work visas or green cards if they showed up.
The City Council’s Committee of Immigration and Committee on Hospitals held the joint hearing on the experiences of African migrants in shelters to “understand how the [Adams] Administration is addressing language access barriers, cultural competency challenges, health needs, and other roadblocks” that the new arrivals face, a press release said.
Ahead of the testimony portion, the committee members heard from activists whose work focuses on providing services to African migrants, the release added.