An anti-migrant protest outside the official residence of New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) turned violent Sunday as demonstrators clashed with counter-protesters.
Demonstrators carried signs reading "Americans over migrants," protesting Adams's policy of housing migrants in residential areas in the city. They scuffled with counter-protesters as police attempted to keep the two groups under control. Counter-protesters, some of them wearing the signature black clothing of Antifa agitators, allegedly stole a flag from the anti-migrant crowd and attempted to burn it before stomping it into the ground.
Amid the chaos, police arrested former Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, who ran against Adams in the 2021 race, for civil disobedience. At the protest, he called out the mayor for giving migrants "more than homeless people born in America have or veterans who are down on their luck have," the New York Post reported. He was arrested at a similar protest a week earlier.
Adams promised during his mayoral campaign that "New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration."
In July, however, his administration distributed flyers to newly arrived migrants, advising them to "consider another city." Those flyers aimed to make the city less appealing to migrants, highlighting the cost of housing, food, an other items vital to their survival.
The city's migrant crisis has raised alarm for both Democratic insiders and everyday New Yorkers. Howard Wolfson, a former deputy mayor and adviser to Michael Bloomberg, told the New York Times earlier this month that the crisis is a "ticking time bomb" for Democrats.
Eighty-two percent of New York state residents called the crisis a "serious" problem, with 54 percent calling it "very serious," in a poll released days before the protest. A majority of New Yorkers also agreed that the state should do more to slow the influx.