STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — A judge blocked migrants from moving into an old school on Staten Island Friday afternoon.
The emergency order came during a day of fast-moving developments that saw swift community pushback against a plan to move migrants to the old St. John Villa Academy.
During the emergency hearing, chants of “go home” along with obscenities from some greeted a few dozen adult migrants who quickly shuffled into the building Friday afternoon.
The city said the site will be used for at least a few months to house adult men and women. The community blowback all week was swift — with most citing the close proximity to local schools, including the Catholic school across the street.
Just an hour before the migrants arrived, many of Staten Island’s Republican elected leaders said they were suing.
Within two hours, there was chanting and cheering when the temporary restraining order was granted. The judge ordered the building to be vacated immediately ahead of a full Sept. 7 hearing.
Eventually, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella was back on the scene with restraining order in hand. Over his shoulder, migrants began filing back out of the old school.
In a statement, the city is insisting the sites it is picking now are all that is left. City officials acknowledge they are not ideal.
According to city statistics, Staten Island is housing about 2% of the roughly 59,000 migrants still directly in the cities care.
