More than 3,200 migrants housed in Big Apple taxpayer-funded shelters were busted — including for violent crimes such as assaults — over a nearly two-year span, police data obtained by The Post on Friday reveals.
The new NYPD numbers provide the first data-driven and most detailed look to date at how the protracted migrant crisis – which saw more than 200,000 asylum seekers flow into the city – affected crime in New York City.
A troublesome cadre of 3,219 migrants living in 48 city shelters across the city were arrested a total of 4,884 times between Jan. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, the data shows.
Their alleged crimes included 1,285 petit larcenies, or minor thefts, 544 assaults and 497 cases for dangerous drugs – the top three on a long list of offenses that also included robberies and sex crimes, according to the data.
The miscreant migrants account for just 4% of the total number of asylum seekers who made their way to New York City, but their alleged crimes count as another cost to the city – in addition to the $7.7 billion that officials revealed this week has been spent.
Mayor Eric Adams has all but declared the migrant crisis over as President Trump’s border policies – or fear of his harsh measures against immigrants – slowed the flow into the city.
The dwindling number of arrivals prompted City Hall officials to shutter massive migrant shelters Randall’s Island, Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field and the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan.
But the hangover from the influx of migrants arguably remains, especially as Adams and city officials hope to maintain law-and-order.
Mayhem sparked by the influx of migrants, who began arriving to the city in spring 2022, have grabbed headlines and sparked political outrage.
Those shocking incidents have included the shooting of two NYPD officers in Queens last June, the scuffle between a group of migrants and cops in Times Square in January 2024 — as well as the recent takedown of 27 suspected members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua gaining a foothold in the city.
Suspected Tren de Aragua members – and those affiliated with its ‘Anti-Tren’ offshoot – allegedly plotted murders, extortion and sex-trafficked young women whom they called “multadas” across the city, the feds and NYPD alleged.
Prosecutors and police sources have said Tren de Aragua members were behind a rash of robberies by moped-riding crooks who snatched phones and purses from unsuspecting New Yorkers.
Just a few months ago, two migrants were cuffed after allegedly attacking a security guard at the troubled Randall’s Island shelter site, which has since closed. And last year, a subway mugging drew harsh rebuke from pols after it was revealed it involved an 11-year-old Venezuelan boy.
But for all the headlines, no police data has ever been released previously on how much crime migrants have been responsible for.
The numbers show that migrants were arrested on various theft charges more than 1,900 times and nearly 900 for assault.
Migrants were also busted almost 500 times for drugs and 235 times for robbery, the data shows.
Three were charged with murder or manslaughter.
Some 1,049 crimes were committed inside the 48 shelters included in the statistics.
The majority of those shelters — counting 26,000 beds total — were also not open during the full 22-month period encompassed by the data set. About six of them only opened in 2024.
That means the data still far from provides the full picture of crime linked by police to asylum seekers during the crisis.
At the peak of the crisis, the city had more than 200 makeshift shelters set up throughout the five boroughs.
The Adams administration has repeatedly raised the issue, but blamed a small number of migrants.
“When the mayor stated that a massive influx of individuals unable to provide for their families would naturally lead to some individuals committing crime, he was wrongly accused of being anti-immigrant,” said City Hall press secretary Kayla Mamelak.
“Still, citywide crime continued to decline, and no family with children was forced to sleep on the street.”
