Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams has plans to convert up to 20 gymnasiums linked to public schools into makeshift shelters for illegal immigrants arriving in the city.
Adams confirmed the illegal immigrant shelter plan in an interview with PIX 11 on Tuesday morning, amid concerns from local parents about child safety and how the plan could disrupt education. Adams explained that the 20 gymnasiums his office is looking at are in structures that are separate from the main school buildings.
“We want to be clear on that plan: We have 20 standalone gymnasiums throughout the city. They stand alone, they’re not a part of the school building,” Adams said. “They are on the list of potential locations that we may have to use. We’re not there yet, but we need a list to be prepared so if these influxes continue, that we could accommodate what we have to accommodate.”
It was not immediately clear from Adams’ comments whether these selected gymnasiums are located on campuses shared with any public schools. NTD News repeatedly reached out to Adams’ office for further details but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.
Adams said his office’s efforts to find shelter locations came about as New York City took in approximately 4,200 new illegal immigrants last week.
Addressing parental concerns about interactions between school children and illegal immigrants, Adams told PIX 11 that, “We have coordinated with school safety agents, the school safety personnel, the New York City Police Department, our [Department of Social Services] staff, everyone is going to make sure there’s no contact between the migrants and our school children—if we have to go there.”
Adams then reiterated that he had not made a final decision on converting these gymnasiums into shelters.
“If we do, we are going to notify the public and let them know,” he added.
Adams did not specify how long these gymnasiums might be used as shelters for illegal immigrants.
NYC Dealing With Illegal Immigrant Buses
New York City is facing an onslaught of illegal immigrants being transported by bus from communities at the U.S. southern border.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending busloads of illegal immigrants from the border to other states for months. Abbott’s bussing strategy has focused on so-called “sanctuary cities” like New York and Chicago. Sanctuary jurisdictions are those that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities who might arrest or deport illegal immigrants.
Adams recently criticized Abbott’s decision to bus migrants to New York City, as well as to other sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington.
“Not only is this behavior morally bankrupt and devoid of any concern for the well-being of asylum seekers, but it is also impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors,” Adams posted on Twitter on May 1 after learning that Abbott was restarting the illegal immigrant bussing program.
Abbott has said his bussing strategy has shone a spotlight on the hypocrisy of sanctuary cities that balk at the prospect of having to actually take in illegal immigrants.
Adams recently launched his own “decompression” strategy to begin relocating illegal immigrants from New York City to neighboring areas of New York State. County officials in Rockland and Orange Counties have both declared emergencies over New York City’s “decompression” strategy, and raised legal challenges to block Adams’ relocation efforts.
