Curtis Sliwa Threatens to Close Staten Island Bridges Over Migrant Shelter; he says he will run for mayor again

Curtis Sliwa threatened to “shut down” all four Staten Island bridges over the city’s decision to house migrants at St. John Villa, closed from the district, during a protest Tuesday night.

At the rally outside the former private school, Sliwa also told the crowd of hundreds of people protesting Shelter for migrants with 300 beds who plans to run for mayor again.

“Well, let me tell you now, police, well in advance so you can tell your commander in chief,” the Guardian Angels founder said, referring to Mayor Eric Adams.

“We’re going to close the Verrazzano Bridge. We’re going to close the Goethals Bridge. We’re going to close the [Bayonne] bridge We will close the Outerbridge Crossing,” he said from the back of a pickup truck parked outside the makeshift shelter in the Arrochar neighborhood.

The Republican, who lost to Adams in the 2021 mayoral race, claimed the independent truckers would block traffic on bridges connecting the borough to Brooklyn and New Jersey with their 18-wheelers.

“That’s how concerned the men who own these rigs who are independent truckers are. They’re going to sacrifice their equipment,” Sliwa said. “They’re not letting illegals into this school … we’re doing everything: trucks, vans, cars, scraps are going to be fixed.”

His comments were met with applause by Staten Islanders who attended the fourth rally against the migrant shelter.

Various demonstrators hit the shelter as a potential danger to students attending a nearby Catholic school, which includes a co-ed K-8 academy as well as an all-girls high school. The rear of the St. Academy campus. Joseph Hill is located across the street from the former site of St. John Villa.

“These people are unchecked, unvaccinated. We don’t know what their background is,” said South Shore resident Florence P, 68. “… We’re trying to protect our children.”

A member of a neighborhood watch group told the crowd that they would look after school children while the migrants arrived at the shelter.

“We will be monitoring our children coming and going from the immediately affected schools in this area,” Pete DiMiceli told the crowd.

DiMiceli and a dozen other men who were part of the group wore bulletproof vests that read “Protect Our Children” at the rally.

Sliwa said Staten Islanders are not afraid of being arrested for protesting migrant housing.

“Do you think you have enough police in Staten Island, do you think you have enough handcuffs?” he screamed. “You will not defeat Americans who are trying to save their county, their community, their city, their state and America.”

He also criticized Adams for “abandoning” Staten Island and said he would do better for the “forgotten neighborhood” as the next mayor.

“And Eric Adams, here we are,” Sliwa said. “I know you can’t find Staten Island without a GPS, but I’ll be coming after you in two years, Eric Adams.”

Sliwa later told The Post that he hasn’t filed any paperwork or started fundraising for a second mayoral run, but is willing to campaign against the Democratic mayor.

“I will be their worst nightmare. Every neighborhood that has done this, I will remind them,” he said.

The city has struggled to find housing for the 107,000 asylum seekers who have flooded the Big Apple since spring 2022.

Since last week, about two dozen migrants have been housed at the former site of the St. John Villa, which closed in 2018 and was later purchased by the city to eventually become a public school.

A judge had temporarily banned the city from hosting migrants at the former school last week, but the order was overturned after an eleventh-hour appeal by the city.

The Court of Appeal lifted an order to leave, allowing migrants already in the shelter to remain.

Sliwa said he would send the buses carrying migrants back to New York City where they came from if elected mayor.

“The buses come in. They are in the Port Authority. Let them relieve themselves… we’re sending them back to your papa chulo, the guy who invited you,” he said using the Spanish slang “papi chulo” which directly translates to “pimp daddy” .

A protester who grew up on the island attended the protest in support of her former neighbors.

“I’m fighting for Staten Island. I’m fighting for the country,” Colleen Mahoney told The Post. “We’re not saying don’t come to this country. We’re just saying use the front door.”