By Melissa Koenig
Mayor Eric Adams has blamed the rise in prostitution in a Queens neighborhood on an influx of female Venezuelan migrants who are struggling to find other work in the Big Apple.
Hizzoner said the surge in “illegal” activity taking place on street corners in Corona is just “one example” of how the nation’s ongoing migrant crisis is crippling the city.
It is unclear whether the Venezuelan migrants the mayor referenced are being sex-trafficked to perform these acts, or if they are soliciting sex of their own free will.
“This is what happens when you create an atmosphere that people can’t provide for themselves — you can’t work, you can’t provide for your job and have to turn to illegal activities to do so,” Adams told reporters during a Tuesday briefing.
“When I talk about the spiraling impact of how this is going to affect our city, this is what I’m talking about,” he said. “We are going to create generational problems based on the failure of the national government, and this is one example of that.”
Adams added that another of these red-light districts has emerged in East New York, Brooklyn, where he said prostitution is “overt during the day.”