NYC Mayor Staff Member Gets in Fight Outside Migrant Shelter

A member of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' staff was "accosted" by a city contractor at a migrant emergency site on Tuesday, the mayor's office told Newsweek.

New York City has been dealing with a spike in homelessness after a recent surge in migrant arrivals, leaving its shelters packed and overwhelmed. In the past year, over 100,000 migrants have come to the city, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The incident with Adams' staffer happened during an "unannounced quality assurance inspection," which the city conducts across 213 emergency sites currently open, a spokesperson for the mayor's office told Newsweek via email.

"As part of a standard inspection today, a member of our team was denied access to a city contractor-operated site and then accosted by a contractor operating on site," the spokesperson said.

The staffer was going into the assistance center, which is housed in the former Touro College building in Midtown, Manhattan, when they were stopped by security and asked to identify themselves, The New York Post reported, citing City Hall and law enforcement sources.

When contacted by Newsweek about the incident the New York Police Department said that at 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday, "officers responded to a dispute inside of 320 West 31 Street, within the confines of the Midtown South Precinct. Upon arrival, officers were informed the victim, a male, was engaged in a dispute with two unknown individuals that became physical."

Authorities said a man, 29-year-old Terrence Rosenthal, and an unnamed 30-year-old woman were taken into custody. The woman was released with a criminal court summons, while Rosenthal was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and harassment.

According to CBS News, the location that the NYPD gave Newsweek is a migrant shelter located just south of Midtown.

New York City currently "provides care to more than 65,400 migrants," the mayor's office said. "The safety and security of migrants in our care and those providing care for them are our top priority in responding to the migrant crisis."

Adams has called the influx of migrants into New York City a humanitarian crisis, declaring a state of emergency in the fall. The mayor has also said accommodating the influx of migrants will cost the city roughly $12 billion over the course of three years.

"Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to," Adams said in September. "I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City."

Just days later, Adams revealed that he ordered his city's agencies to prepare for budget cuts of up to 15 percent.

"The simple truth is that long-time New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel these potential cuts and they will hurt," the mayor said in a video he released on YouTube. "New Yorkers are angry and frustrated, and they are right to be. I am too."