THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 23, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
NY Post
New York Post
16 May 2023


NextImg:‘Open up Gracie Mansion’: Angry parents, kids rally outside NYC schools over migrants

Score of furious parents and children protested outside at least three Brooklyn schools prepped to house migrants Tuesday, demanding Mayor Eric Adams find other spots — including his own Gracie Mansion — to dump the asylum-seekers.

“I say to the mayor, ‘Open up Gracie Mansion, and allow the migrants to have a shower and hot meal,’ ” Mayra Ducos, 42, raged to The Post as she rallied outside her children’s Williamsburg school, PS 17, first thing Tuesday.

“ ‘You have 22,000 square feet, let them seek refuge at your home.’ I bet he has a good stove to cook the migrants a hot meal.”

PS 17, which shares a gym with MS 577, housed 10 migrant men for two hours overnight before the asylum-seekers were whisked off to Staten Island, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Dozens of cots were erected inside the gym Monday as The Post revealed PS 17 and MS 577 were among those schools set to temporarily take on asylum-seekers as the Big Apple struggles with a surging migrant crisis.

The move prompted 60 parents to picket outside the campus early Tuesday — as they demanded their kids get back use of their gym.

“I don’t feel safe having adult men with no criminal background checks or health screenings living at our children’s school,” said Richard Cabo, 46, whose daughter is in sixth grade at MS 577.

Furious parents picket outside PS 172 in Sunset Park on Tuesday after the school’s gym was set up to temporarily house migrants.
Gregory P. Mango

Parents and children rally outside PS 17, which shares a gym with MS 577, in Williamsburg first thing Tuesday.

Parents and children rally outside PS 17, which shares a gym with MS 577, in Williamsburg first thing Tuesday.
Gabriella Bass

“This gym took over three years to construct and only just opened in January. The kids have had a few months of reprieve, and now it’s being stripped from them. It’s just not fair.”

“The kids are very distraught. My daughter didn’t want to come to school today,” the dad said.

A crowd of more than 50 parents also gathered outside PS 172 in Sunset Park after cots were set up inside their gymnasium Monday.

Rally organizers said “seat adjusters” had been added to the small children toilets to cater for the adult migrants’ arrival.

“It makes me want to cry, honestly,” Jesenia Velez, 32, whose second-grade daughter is enrolled at the school, said of the migrant influx.

“I do sympathize with what’s going on, but I just don’t think it should be on school grounds. If you’re going to accept people in, that’s fine, but they should be nowhere near kids. It’s not the right place,” the distraught mom continued.

Parents at the Williamsburg school carry signs declaring: "We support asylum seekers but not at school."

Parents at the Williamsburg school carry signs declaring: “We support asylum seekers but not at school.”
Gabriella Bass

“We don’t know who they are. We don’t know where they’re coming from. We don’t know anything about them.

“If it gets worse, we will have to pull her out — especially if it’s all men,” Velez’s partner, Joseph Rosa, said of their daughter and the migrants.  

Some children protesting outside the school waved signs that read, “Mayor Adams — my school is not a hotel!” and, “I’m a child don’t violate my rights!” 

A handful of PS 172 parents remained stationed outside the school gates overnight in case busloads of migrants started arriving under the cover of darkness.

Sheldon Austin, the school’s PTA co-president, demanded that Adams come down and face the furious parents, warning, “You picked the wrong neighborhood and the wrong school.

“Mayor Adams, there are other places you can use. If you had the guts, you would come down here yourself,” Austin said, adding that PS 172 attendance was already down 25% on Tuesday, with many parents opting to keep their kids home.

Kids rallying outside PS 172 on Tuesday hold signs saying, "Refugees need better homes, not our school gym!"

Kids rallying outside PS 172 on Tuesday hold signs saying, “Refugees need better homes, not our school gym!”
Gregory P. Mango

“Since you are the head of this decision, why don’t you come out here and face these parents?” he added, addressing Adams. “You’re not going to do this to us.”

The upheaval comes after Hizzoner revealed that 20 city public-school gyms are now being eyed to hold migrants, though he claimed it was still just a possibility — even after the cots were hauled in and principals warned parents about the move in letters.

“We have 20 stand-alone gymnasiums throughout the city that are not part of the school building. They are on the list of potential locations we may have to use,” Adams told PIX 11 on Tuesday morning.

“We’re not there yet, but we need a list to be prepared so that if this influx continues, we can accommodate.”

Despite Adams’ claim, dozens of migrants were photographed lying on cots inside the gym at PS 188 in Coney Island over the weekend.

Cots were seen set up inside PS 172’s gym Monday ahead of the migrant arrivals.

Cots were seen set up inside PS 172’s gym Monday ahead of the migrant arrivals.

About 4,200 migrants arrived in the Big Apple last week and another 15 buses are slated for this weekend.

“As we’ve been saying for months, we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, having opened approximately 150 emergency sites, including eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers, to serve more than 65,000 asylum seekers,” a City Hall spokesman said late Monday.

“We are opening emergency shelters and respite centers daily, but we are out of space.”