A high school soccer game that was set to take place at a public field in East Harlem was canceled after a group of migrants refused to leave the field, even after the authorities showed up, according to the New York Post.
Erik Johansson, the coach of the Manhattan Kickers’ 17-year-old boys travel team, said: “I directly asked them to leave and some of them kind of took it into consideration, but then four or five of them said, ‘You know what, f–k it, we don’t have to leave, we can do whatever we want.’”
The report mentioned that about 40 boys from both teams showed up on Sunday, April 14 at Thomas Jefferson Park for the match scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
The Kickers were set to do battle against FA Euro New York.
However, things didn’t go as planned after around 30 men, who appeared to be African migrants and spoke little English, refused to get off the pitch. Even after the police showed up, the migrants wouldn’t budge.
To resolve the conflict, the authorities asked to see a copy of the club team’s city permit, according to the Post.
“When you show up with two teams in uniform, a ref and two coaches, usually nobody is asking to see your permit,” Johansson said.
“Even when the game is over, you don’t know if they’re waiting for you, so even if the cops kicked them out, it may not be over. So we just all agreed, this is too dangerous,” Johansson added.
After Johansson’s assistant coach was able to get a copy of the permit to the police, the game had already been delayed 30 minutes. But the two teams agreed to cancel the game, feeling unsafe in the situation.
The Daily Mail reported that the parents who attended the game don’t want to play at the field anymore, claiming that they felt unsafe. Johansson, whose home country of Sweden has seen a massive influx of migrants in recent years, said “I have seen this before, I know how bad it can get.”
New York City has taken in more than 175,000 migrants, and it is currently playing host to 67,500. However, those migrants are limited to a 30-day stay in order to alleviate overflow.
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams has been critical of the Biden Administration’s handling of the sudden influx of migrants showing up to sanctuary cities. Adams referred to the migrant situation as “one of the largest humanitarian crises this city has every experienced.”
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