At least 2,000 people will be provided shelter at a former airfield in Brooklyn as New York City copes with an influx of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the southern border.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on X, formerly Twitter, that a “tentative contract” was made with the Biden administration to house the illegal immigrants, some of whom may qualify as genuine asylum seekers, at Floyd Bennett Field.
“This site will be critical in the interim for the City of New York to provide humanitarian aid, as we work collectively to get people on the path to asylum seeker status and legal work,” Ms. Hochul said.
The Federal government will lease the space for free but the state of New York will cover the costs of maintaining the site, she added.
The governor also announced that an additional budget of $20 million was freed up to speed up the casework for nearly 30,000 unverified asylum seekers currently sheltered by multiple New York City agencies.
“Ultimately, the path out of this crisis is granting work authorization immediately, so these individuals can move out of shelter and into independent living arrangements,” Ms. Hochul said.
New York City mayor Eric Adams thanked Ms. Hochul “for her commitment to pay for this site,” adding that he is looking forward to a similar partnership in Albany.
“But let’s be clear,” the mayor said, “because we haven’t seen meaningful policy changes that would alter the course of this crisis, we’ve been forced to play an unsustainable game of ‘whack-a-mole’, opening new site after new site as asylum-seekers continue to arrive by the thousands.”
New York City has seen an influx of more than 100,000 people over the past year following a surge of illegal entries along the Mexican border related to the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy, as reports of a porous border continue.
So far, the Adams administration has opened more than 200 emergency shelters in various city-owned buildings, hotels, and other locations, including a facility on Randall’s Island capable of housing up to 2,000 people. More than a dozen administrative centers are currently operating to process new arrivals.
According to Ms. Hochul, the combined cost of shelter, food, and other necessities for the illegal immigrants amounts to $20 million a month.
In addition to the New York state’s $1.5 billion commitment to support the city’s efforts to shelter the immigrants, more than 1,800 members of the National Guard have been deployed to provide logistical and operational support.
Mr. Adams said the cost of providing for those who intend to apply for asylum, whether they have valid cases or not, could rise to $12 billion in coming years.
His administration has been relocating immigrants to upstate counties but these efforts are facing legal challenges from their county officials.
