Illegal immigrants sheltering in Staten Island are facing high-decibel audio recordings urging them to leave the area, claiming poor living conditions and asserting they are being deceived by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams.
"Close the border."
Outraged New Yorkers protest against migrants being housed on Staten Island. pic.twitter.com/2DZmGQf4Sa
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The audio recording is broadcasted in five languages – English, Spanish, Ukrainian, Chinese, and Urdu – at an ear-splitting level of 117 decibels. It plays from a professional speaker on the property of homeowner Scott Herkert, located next to the former St. John Villa Academy, which has been repurposed as a migrant shelter.
Saint John's villa Staten Island NY
Frustrated Staten Island residents chase off a bus full of migrant during a drop-off .
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The recording asserts that migrants are being lied to by Mayor Eric Adams and provides information about the shelter’s conditions, though some information included on it appears to be false, such as the number of cots=per=room.
Saint John's villa Staten Island
During a rally held against migrants being housed at the Villa, the crowd Surrounds a photographer who they think is Antifa and tells her to leave . NYPD officers escorted the lady out before she got hurt.
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As a result of the blaring recording, several asylum seekers have been seen leaving the shelter, apparently alarmed by the message.
“At least half a dozen left 10 minutes after we started playing it,” Herkert said. “Four or five left two hours later, and then we saw four of them leaving this morning.”
One neighbor said the campaign had been effective.
“Yesterday afternoon when they started playing it, I watched three girls who are coming in, they all stopped. The one with the luggage, she pulled out her phone and started recording the message that was going out. Then she wouldn’t go in, she turned around and got into an Uber and left,” Mohan said.
The campaign is led by Newsmax personality and former Independent city comptroller candidate John Tabacco, who defends the tactic as a form of “legal psychological warfare.”
Tabacco believes that migrants are being deceived about their living conditions and wanted to inform them of the truth. He claims that migrants are promised air-conditioned buses, hotel rooms, and debit cards but are instead placed in crowded, makeshift shelters.
The audio message is also being distributed in the form of flyers at Manhattan’s migrant processing center in the former Roosevelt Hotel. Tabacco says these actions are aimed at countering the misinformation that migrants receive.
Following reports of the blaring audio, police supervisors visited the scene, and community affairs officers asked Herkert to lower the volume of the recording.
