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Progressive NYC Democrat Lincoln Restler thinks city should coax migrants to stay longer

Isn’t crossing the border illegally supposed to be frowned upon?

A progressive Democrat on the City Council blasted the accommodations at a new emergency migrant shelter in Brooklyn — because it doesn’t seem hospitable enough to make asylum seekers want to stay longer.

“It’s a situation that I believe is intended to encourage people to move along as quickly as possible,” Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) griped Wednesday.

After touring the converted Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook with other officials, Restler complained there were “a thousand cots lined up in rows that are a dozen long.”

“When you’re sleeping in the middle of a row, you have eight people around you — 3 feet in every direction, if not even closer. There is no privacy at all,” he said.

The liberal pol’s complaint comes despite Mayor Eric Adams, who declared a state of emergency over the migrant crisis in October, saying it will cost taxpayers as much as $2 billion to provide the migrant population — now 43,200 and counting — with shelter and other services.

Lincoln Restler
Gabriella Bass

Still, Restler accused the city of “trying to discourage people from staying in its care, and that’s why they’ve set up this aggregate facility.”

Councilwoman Alexa Aviles (D-Brooklyn), whose district covers the cruise terminal, also griped that the area “was not meant for pedestrians.”

“The lighting issue is probably something we want to address and make sure it’s appropriate lighting for the movement of folks,” added Aviles, who toured the shelter with Restler.

 Photo shows: City Council members visit the outdoor HERRC for a tour.
Gabriella Bass

But Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who took a later tour, said, “It was great in there. It was warm, it was a comfortable temperature. It’s well-organized and the showers were clean and brand-new.”

Holden, who chairs the Veterans Committee, also noted that former military members “don’t get that. We don’t give our own citizens that.”

“So, I just don’t get it,” he said of the complaints. “If they want to do that in their own districts and put them up in their own houses and offer them all the services, let them do that.”

The cruise terminal setup is at the heart of the migrant standoff at the three-star Watson Hotel in Manhattan, where about 35 migrants who formerly lived inside were camped out on the sidewalk Wednesday.

Robert Holden
Gabriella Bass

Four migrants from the Watson checked out the cruise terminal Tuesday with city Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro but decided they’d rather go back and sleep outdoors.