A portion of Randall’s Island, as of August 2023, was converted to serve as one of New York City’s largest migrant shelters. The tent city, also referred to as the Randall’s Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC), housed up to 3,000 asylum seekers at its peak and was in operation until its closure in February 2025.
The decision to occupy Randall’s island was simply due to the fact that there was no better alternative for asylum seekers to go. If migrants were relocated to areas in more densely populated parts of New York, issues of overcrowding in shelters or housing would arise, resulting in a spike in homelessness. If they are relocated to other boroughs such as Queens, the Bronx, or Brooklyn, it can result in housing issues and would impede current projects to renovate under-developed housing.
Migrants come hoping for escape from their country, perhaps opportunity, and find themselves in unwelcoming, unorganized, and unsanitary conditions, and in some cases, leaving them in a worse spot than before.
The facility on Randall’s Island was dismantled as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ cost-cutting initiative, following a steady fourteen-week decline in the number of asylum seekers entering the city. But even as the tents come down, the legacy of the shelter continues to stay prominent. There has been criticism of the conditions on the island during the shelter’s operation, with many pointing to reports of crime, unsanitary conditions, and unauthorized encampments–complaints which don’t lie at the fault of people who occupied the tents, but at the general lack of organization and unsafe conditions of HERRC.
As the city begins relocating the remaining residents to other facilities and winds down similar operations, such as the Hall Street shelter in Brooklyn, attention now turns to what comes next for Randall’s Island.
City officials have acknowledged the effect the shelter placed on the island’s infrastructure. One of the largest tent structures, which held over 750 cots, was only recently removed, and some recreational fields remain unusable. Environmental concerns have also been raised due to overuse of the land and what can be described as poor maintenance via park officials throughout the shelter’s operation.
Recently, in an effort to restore the island’s parks, foliage, and athletic fields, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is calling for eleven million in funding to restore the island’s parkland and athletic fields.
The federal government of the United States does not offer any aid, and in fact heightens the situation of, people who come across this country’s borders seeking security. Migrants are being mistreated, with politicians displaying no regard for their living conditions, and more disturbingly, their life. This is made clear through deportations, relocations, and separations of families and individuals back to places they sought escape from. Luckily, in New York City, there are more protections in terms of having more state and citywide laws that supersede federal laws; however, the issue remains prevalent. It is important to find the best way to provide for migrants in the context of the city’s capabilities.
Back in 2023, Mayor Eric Adams established an order offering legal assistance to migrants across New York City shelters. This program ultimately allowed for over 100,000 migrants to successfully complete job applications as well as generally receive working papers, which assisted in providing assistance to incorporating new residents to the city, as well as giving asylum seekers a more embedded role in New York’s community. In May of 2025, however, it was announced the center for this effort–the Asylum Application Help Center–would be closing.
The closing of the Help Center was justified by the fact that the amount of migrants entering the city was slowing down, resulting in less need for the program. The decision to shut down the center, however, is irrational and unfair to the thousands of residents in the city who still struggle with employment and generally getting on their feet in terms of housing and occupation–regardless of if that number is increasing or not.
Yet, these efforts have accomplished what the city intended; over 100 migrants arrive in New York City per week, which is significantly lower than the 4,000 recorded at the peak in prior years. There is also around half of the number of migrant families living in shelters this year than there was last year; going from around 69,000 in January 2024 to around 38,000 in the present.
This cutback on migrant populations is not wholly due to centralized New York City mayoral governments, but also is in part attributable to the new Trump administration policies.
One of the ways in which President Trump showed his intentions was through his establishment of a new registration system for non-citizens– declared only four weeks into his inauguration. Trump initiated a program that, for those who do not have current citizenship, would be required to immediately register, leaving individuals in a high risk situation; possibility of being arrested, taken into custody, and/or shipped away via Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) runs high, even if they would just be showing up to “register.”
The President has called for at least 20,000 new enforcement officers to roam the streets and identify any non-citizens who aren’t willing to turn themselves in to a government who is prepared to show no mercy. This, paired with the fact that the government is censoring any freedom of speech or criticism regarding the immigration systems, Mahmoud Khalil–who was detained by ICE for his activism regarding Palestine–acts just one of the many instances of this.
The federal government took back 80 million in funding regarding migrant shelters, and has intention to remove even more. This funding–funding that allowed for thousands of people entering the U.S. to find aid and slightly more comfort in terms of security on all fronts–is needed and, at the very least, ethical to allot to those in need.
Justification for this cutback, which was immorally supported in other ways by City officials, included the rationale that since the amount of migrants coming into the city dropped by ninety-five percent in the past year, a subsequent decrease in funding should also follow suit. This, however, is only in the context of New York City; there are so many other places nationwide that have shelters or condensed migrant populations that would greatly benefit from financial support via the government, such that they would have more capabilities to provide security and overall assistance to new residents of the country.
A vital part of understanding the migrant situation in New York is addressing how it started; or at least how the most recent wave started. Over 200,000 asylum-seekers have made their way into the city since the spring of 2022, causing politicians to dub it a ‘crisis,’ with Mayor Eric Adams claiming the city could be “destroyed” if not helped in finding a solution.
“Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” said by the mayor during a town hall in September of 2023.
One major challenge in helping migrants settle into homes and begin building a life in the U.S. is that many are legally unable to secure jobs–and, by extension, stable housing. This stems from the U.S. policy that requires migrants to reside in the country for six months before they can obtain a work permit. This is just one of a plethora of reasons as to why the immigration system in New York, and the country as a whole, is flawed and makes finding residency for new people that arrive in this country nearly impossible.
Some other aspects that make for such a broken system include the lack of a comprehensive federal immigration reform, as well as a lack of assistance over the migrant crisis problem via the Trump Administration.
As much as the amount of migrants seen arriving in the city in recent years is significant, and New York was not well-equipped with many ways to help aid the rise, in certain ways it can be concluded that the city took what it had, and found ways to provide shelter as well as education to those who needed it, actions of which cannot be applied to other parts of the United States (wholly due to the government). Even though in recent months the migrant numbers have been easing, and shelters are slowly closing, it is still important to remember the general open-doors policy and welcoming nature of New York.
Migrants come hoping for escape from their country, perhaps opportunity, and find themselves in unwelcoming, unorganized, and unsanitary conditions, and in some cases, leaving them in a worse spot than before.