The father of pop singer Lady Gaga has taken action against the unprecedented illegal immigration crisis in New York, forming an association with fellow Upper West Side residents to address concerns to Mayor Eric Adams.
Joe Germanotta, 66, has been a resident of 70th Street for decades and owns a restaurant in the area.
Germanotta added that his neighborhood no longer resembles that which he came to love due to the surge in illegal immigrants.
As the New York Post reported, city officials kicked out students to turn the American Music and Dance Academy’s Stratford Arms Hotel near Germanotta’s home into a migrant shelter.
Since then, illegal immigrants have flooded the area causing “mayhem.”
“It was a stealth operation,” Germanotta said.
“They were bused in the middle of the night … they didn’t want anybody to know what was going on. It was all pretty rapid.”
Germanotta said the relatively quiet neighborhood has transformed for the worst.
He adds that illegal immigrants held large block parties with loud music and risky behavior, such as the increase in the presence of prostitutes.
“If it was like this when my girls were growing up, I wouldn’t be living in New York,” the father of Lady Gaga told the Post, in reference the to the illegal immigration problem.
He also noted the impact on residents and their properties.
“They feel that this situation has affected their property values,” Germanotta said. “Give us a tax rebate. Are they spending all this money? Ok, give me some.”
Germanotta and other residents have formed the West 70th Street Association to tackle the crisis.
The association has met with New York City officials and hopes to meet next with Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mayor Eric Adams’ chief advisor
“I don’t mind having them there. They’re gonna be there for three years. That was the contract, I understand. But at least manage it. Put the proper security in place, have a police presence and a code of conduct,” Germanotta said.
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams sounded the alarm, demanding Joe Biden declare a national emergency at the border.
In a briefing on Wednesday about the state of the City’s finances, Adams warned the influx of migrants could cost the City $12 billion.
“So we continue to do an average of twenty-five hundred a week, five thousand every two weeks, ten thousand a month,” Adams said.
“You don’t have to be a mathematician to understand what this is doing to our city,” he said.
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There are 57,300 migrants in the City, with an estimated 100,000 that will need services by June 2025.
Adams admitted that the massive increase in migrants could cost the City as much as $12 billion over the next three years.
READ: New York City to Convert Soccer Fields into Shelter for 2,000 Illegal Immigrants
