Queens locals fed up with the conditions along Roosevelt Avenue are hoping the new Trump administration will help “clean up” the area besieged by crime they say has been committed by homeless migrants.
A group of residents, including ex-Democratic state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, penned a letter Tuesday to President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, requesting federal assistance after claiming state and local leaders weren’t doing enough to improve safety.
“The situation here in Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst is outrageous,” read the letter to Homan, who’s been tasked by Trump to oversee a mass deportation operation.
“Over the past seven months our community has risen up to confront a wave of lawlessness in our community that landed here about a year and a half ago.”
The Roosevelt Avenue corridor has faced homelessness and ongoing lawlessness by dozens of migrants, including drug dealing, harassment and theft, as well as lesser crimes like drinking in the open, littering and public urination, locals said during a Tuesday press conference.
There have been instances of assault and also a series of brothels that have destroyed residents’ sense of safety and their quality of life, community leaders added.
The problems have long plagued the corridor and surrounding areas, which has been chronicled in The Post.
One barber shop even closed down because 50 homeless people set up in front of the storefront, making it impossible for the business to survive.
“They couldn’t compete with the vagrants because the barbers would have 10-20 vagrants using drugs and drinking right here,” Monserrate said of Los Primos Barber Shop where the press conference took place in front of.
“This should not be happening anywhere in America, much less Queens County,” he added.
A tiny park in Corona, The American Triangle, is also blocked off, community advocates pointed out.
“Take a guess why it’s barricaded? Because the vagrants were using it as their home and bathroom. They took the triangle away from our community and the police were not capable of removing them…so we barricaded it,” the former pol said.
“Can you imagine that the triangles in our community have to be barricaded to keep us safe from the vagrants?”
Monserrate, who was expelled from the state senate in 2010 after he was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge involving his ex-girlfriend, said he and other activists want the Department of Homeland Security to visit their neighborhoods to “determine the level of criminality and take action as they deem appropriate,” including deportation.
The letter by Monserrate, now a Democratic district leader in the area, and Mauricio Zamora, of community group Neighbors of the America Triangle, is making a direct plea to the feds because sanctuary city laws prevent local authorities from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
While the city and state have added more cops in the community, it hasn’t resolved the issues afflicting the corridor, according to the letter.
Zamora said Tuesday he and his neighbors don’t oppose immigration.
“I am an immigrant, but these people do damage and harm to the community,” he said, adding women have to cross the street because they know they’ll be harassed.
“I’ve been living in this community for a long time and I do not feel safe,” longtime Corona resident Toni Diaz also said. “We need, we want the federal government to come here and clean up our area.”
