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EXCLUSIVE: As the New York City mayoral election quickly approaches and socialist Zohran Mamdani is heavily favored to win, New Yorkers are sounding off on the human toll that sanctuary policies have had on their city.
In a new investigative video released by The American Border Story (TABS), New Yorkers detailed their concerns about how the city’s migrant shelters and sanctuary policies had resulted in a surge in organized crime in their neighborhoods.
One New Yorker said the blame for the policies lies directly with the progressive Democratic city council.
“This is the worst city council I have ever seen in my life in New York City,” said Renee Collymore, a local organizer and Democrat.
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Demonstrators gather to protest the opening of a migrant tent city at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens City, New York on Friday, September 8, 2023. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
“This council is a predominantly progressive, leftist, socialist council,” Collymore went on. “And when you have a one-sided council, you can’t get work done, because they believe that the middle of the road Democrats, the Democrats such as myself and my family, so many people in our district are traditional Democrats, they believe that we are the ones that are standing in the way of progress.”
“If you know that there’s gang activity and nothing is being done, shame on you. Because all that does is hurt the community. It puts people at risk,” she said, adding, “The sanctuary city law has to be overturned.”
Instead of overturning or amending the law, Collymore complained that “our legislators are acting like the migrants are their children,” while telling moderates, “You’re anti-migrant.”
“How am I anti-migrant? My father’s from the West Indies. They make these claims because it’s not affecting them where they live. But people who live on Hall Street will tell you, they were terrorized,” she said, adding, “This is unbelievable.”
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Migrants line up outside the Roosevelt Hotel, a major shelter site. (Getty)
According to Collymore, after a migrant shelter was opened in her community, there was a rise in sex trafficking and parents no longer felt safe taking their children to public playgrounds. She also said that Venezuelan gangs took over the streets and would even patrol the streets carrying metal pipes.
“This was not a joke. There were stabbings, a triple murder,” she said.
Another New Yorker said that former President Joe Biden’s “error was when he allowed certain countries, you know, like Venezuela, certain countries like Colombia, even certain countries in Europe and certain countries in Africa that he allowed to just exile their prisoners,” large numbers of whom eventually found their way to New York City.
“I feel like his error was opening the borders and just saying, ‘Okay, send everybody and we’re going to take them regardless of their background, regardless of any type of check being done,” he said.
Dino, a pizzeria owner and immigrant himself, said that the migrant influx into New York brought up new challenges, including from gang members. He said that though sanctuary policies “could work on paper, in reality, it does not work.”
Dino also told Fox News Digital, “I’ve run my business here for years — I know what this neighborhood used to feel like. Now my employees are scared walking home at night, customers are staying away, and gangs are running the streets.”
“We need our leaders in New York to stop protecting politics and start protecting people,” he said.
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Hundreds of migrants are seen sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan early during the height of the migrant crisis under former President Joe Biden in 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Leeroy Johnson, a local independent journalist, also spoke with TABS. He said that though many migrants came looking for a better life, “some of them were planning way before they came here to come here and cause problems in New York.”
“Of course, local gangs are going to recruit them. Of course, the older migrant gangs that came here are going to recruit them because they know nothing’s going to happen to them and they need money, and they will do whatever they can to get money. Some of these guys have committed heinous crimes back in their home country, murders, robberies, stabbings. We let them loose on the street, local gangs are going to jump on that quickly.”
“It’s extremely dangerous,” he went on. “And they’re committing crimes right and left and they know they can commit it and get away with it because they’ll be right out, an hour, two hours, 24 hours later, back on the street doing the same thing, hurting more people over and over again.”
This comes as New York City has closed down several of its migrant shelters, including perhaps the most infamous one at the famous Roosevelt Hotel, which became an epicenter for gang crime related to Tren de Aragua, a group that has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
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New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks to volunteers at a canvass launch in Brooklyn on Sept. 28, 2025. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The New York City mayoral election will be on Nov. 4. Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and is the Democratic mayoral nominee, currently leads the race by double digits against independent candidate, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Mamdani has pledged to resist the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, accusing ICE of terrorizing the city and saying, “If I’m mayor, we will stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors.”
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Commenting on the video, Nicole Kiprilov, executive director of TABS, told Fox News Digital, “What you’re seeing in New York is the direct result of failed border policies.”
“Families are scared, neighborhoods are changing overnight, and city officials are nowhere to be found. This crisis isn’t contained at the border anymore — it’s on America’s doorstep,” said Kiprilov.
