Police search huge NYC migrant shelter for 'dangerous contraband' as residents wait in summer heat

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Police search huge NYC migrant shelter for 'dangerous contraband' as residents wait in summer heat

2024-08-03 07:55 Last Updated At：08:00

NEW YORK (AP) — Police searched New York City's largest asylum-seeker shelter for hours Friday for “dangerous contraband” as many of the 3,000 residents waited outside on a sweltering summer day.

Many details remained unclear about the search on Randall's Island, which houses people in large tents.

“They just came with dogs,” resident Clifton Arriste said as he sat outside the tents in the early evening, unsure what the animals were brought to sniff for.

Police Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in a midafternoon social media post that there was “an operation” to “remove any dangerous contraband from the shelter.”

“The safety and security of all New Yorkers, and every single person in our care, is our top priority,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The police department didn't answer follow-up questions about the duration of the search, what it entailed, the impetus for it and any steps being taken to ensure shelter residents' welfare on a day when temperatures topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) on a humid afternoon. By early evening, most people were back inside the tents.

Advocates for the migrants decried the search.

“Temporarily displacing and conducting a police raid on 3,000 new arrivals, despite today’s heat advisory, not only raises serious constitutional questions but is draconian and fuels dangerous xenophobic sentiment," the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said in a statement.

Since the spring of 2022, about 207,000 migrants have arrived and sought aid in New York City, and about 65,000 remain in city care, Mayor Eric Adams said at a town hall meeting Wednesday. Adams, a Democrat, said about 1,000 migrants now arrive weekly, down from a peak of 4,000.

The city has housed them in hotels, empty schools and other facilities, including at Randall's Island.

Concerns about safety and violence in and around the city's various migrant shelters have flared periodically.

In a recent example, a woman was shot dead and two people were wounded early Monday in a Randall’s Island park where people had come together to react to Venezuela’s presidential election. Police said they believed the shooter was retaliating after being robbed at gunpoint earlier.

The mayor, a retired police captain, said this winter that metal detectors would be installed at the Randall's Island facility. He has also said, however, that troublemakers are few considering the number of people in the shelters.

Arriste, who is from gang-violence-wracked Haiti, said he had never seen drugs or weapons at the shelter but was concerned for his security at times.

“Sometimes people just can get fighting together, and when they get fighting, that’s when everything can happen,” he said. “We’re not safe in this way.”

At least 16 dead in flooding and tornadoes as storms slash US South and Midwest

2025-04-06 19:11 Last Updated At：19:21

DYERSBURG, Tenn. (AP) — A storm system sweeping over large areas of the U.S. South and Midwest resulted in at least 16 weather-related deaths by early Sunday, with overnight tornado and flash flood warnings setting up more severe weather that forecasters say could cause rising waterways for days to come.

Many of the impacted areas already are heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that spawned deadly tornadoes. New tornado warnings were issued overnight in Alabama and Mississippi, along with flash flood warnings for several counties in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Saturday included more of the torrential rain and flash flooding that has pounded the central U.S., rapidly swelling waterways and prompting emergencies from Texas to Ohio. The 16 reported deaths since the start of the storms included 10 in Tennessee alone.

The National Weather Service said dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach what the agency calls “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

A 57-year-old man died Friday evening after getting out of a car that washed off a road in West Plains, Missouri. Flooding killed two people in Kentucky including a 9-year-old boy swept away that same day on his way to school and a 74-year-old whose body was found Saturday inside a fully submerged vehicle in Nelson County, authorities said.

Also Saturday, a 5-year-old died at a home in Little Rock, Arkansas, in a weather-related incident, according to police. No details were immediately provided.

Tornadoes earlier in the week destroyed entire neighborhoods and were responsible for at least seven of the deaths.

There were 521 flights cancelled and more than 6,400 flights delayed within the U.S. or coming into or leaving the country on Saturday, according to FlightAware.com, which reported 74 cancellations and 478 delays of U.S. flights early Sunday.

Interstate commerce also could be affected. The extreme flooding across a corridor that includes the major cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis could lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

The outburst comes at a time when nearly half of NWS forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates after Trump administration job cuts, twice that of just a decade ago.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Saturday that the Ohio River rose 5 feet (about 1.5 meters) in 24 hours and would continue to swell for days.

“We expect this to be one of the top 10 flooding events in Louisville history,” he said.

Flash flood emergency and tornado warnings continued to be issued Saturday across Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, with more heavy rains and damaging winds in the mix. All of eastern Kentucky was under a flood watch through Sunday morning.

Hundreds of Kentucky roads across the state were impassable because of floodwaters, downed trees or mud and rock slides.

Downtown Hopkinsville, Kentucky, reopened in the morning after floodwaters from the Little River receded, giving a much-needed reprieve, but still more rainfall was on its way, Mayor James R. Knight Jr. said.

“We got a little rain, but most of it went north of us,” Knight said. “Thank goodness on that. Gave us a little break.”

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth, a town of 2,000 people in a bend of the rising Licking River. The warnings were similar to catastrophic flooding nearly 30 years ago when the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

In Arkansas, weather officials pleaded with people to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary due to widespread flooding.

BNSF Railway confirmed that a railroad bridge in Mammoth Spring was washed out by floodwaters, causing the derailment of several cars. No injuries were reported, but there was no immediate estimate for when the bridge would reopen.

Since Wednesday, more than a foot of rain (30.5 centimeters) has fallen in parts of Kentucky, and more than 8 inches (20 centimeters) in parts of Arkansas and Missouri, forecasters said Saturday.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

At least two reports of observed tornadoes were noted Friday evening in Missouri and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service. One, near Blytheville, Arkansas, lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to NWS meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived Saturday at a storm shelter near a public school in the rain, clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities.

Among them was George Manns, 77, who said he was in his apartment when he heard a tornado warning and decided to head to the shelter. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

“I grabbed all my stuff and came here,” said Mann, who brought a folding chair, two bags of toiletries, laptops, iPads and medications: “I don’t leave them in my apartment in case my apartment is destroyed. I have to make sure I have them with me.”

Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed.