NY state asks Biden to open up military facilities for migrant housing

New York state is asking President Joe Biden to make an airfield in southeast Brooklyn and military facilities across the Northeast available to help house an expected increase in migrants.

Hochul sent a letter to Biden making the formal request Friday afternoon, asking the administration to fund and manage housing facilities on federal property as New York City deals with an anticipated increase in asylum seekers and migrant arrivals following the expiration of the country's pandemic-era border policy.

The Democratic governor first revealed the request during a private call with county officials from across the state, a recording of which was obtained by Gothamist.

“We’re directly asking the president, we’re asking the Department of Defense to identify installations and other properties and have them start managing them,” Hochul said on the call. “I don’t know what the answer to that request will be.”

Hochul's letter specifically requested a housing facility at Floyd Bennett Field, a former military airfield in Jamaica Bay now managed by a division of the National Park Service. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has been pleading for federal aid for months, mentioned the field as a housing possibility Thursday. She did not specify where else in the Northeast these facilities could be located.

"The use of a portion of Floyd Bennett Field within the Gateway National Recreation Area and other spaces on military installations, including naval resources, in and across the Northeast is necessary to utilize all available space to maintain critical and essential public services, specifically sheltering and housing," Hochul wrote to Biden.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The governor’s call with county leaders came amid rising tensions between New York City and some Republican officials over the expected increase in migrant arrivals.

On Thursday, Adams’ office transported a few dozen single male migrants to a hotel in the Orange County town of Newburgh, over the strenuous objections of County Executive Steve Neuhaus. A state Supreme Court judge granted the Rockland County town of Orangetown a temporary restraining order to block similar arrivals, pending a hearing at the end of the month. Newburgh officials filed a similar lawsuit Friday evening, while the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a competing lawsuit the day before.

Hochul has said she supports Adams’ efforts to find shelter for the new arrivals, many of whom are seeking asylum from their home countries. Late Thursday evening, a pandemic-era order allowing the U.S. to quickly turn migrants away at the border to stem the spread of COVID-19 expired, leading to the anticipated rise in arrivals.

Already, New York City has received more than 60,000 migrants since last spring and is currently providing care for more than 37,000, according to the mayor’s office. The new arrivals are expected to cost the city more than $4 billion over the next two years, the Adams administration says.

But Hochul has said she wants to identify housing locations that are within the five boroughs or closer to the city than Rockland and Orange counties. The Newburgh hotel is about 70 miles north of the city.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a Democrat whose county borders the Bronx, said his county is willing to welcome migrants, but so far no hotels to his knowledge have contracted with New York City.

"My tone is: We want to work with a reasonable number that we can help manage to make sure that the experience goes well," he said. "We want to know that what the logistics are, so we're prepared for it. And also, we do want to know the duration. Is this to handle an immediate problem that could be four to six months of duration? Or are we looking at something that's going to be a long-term scenario?"

On the call with county officials, Hochul said state officials are now “embedded” in New York City’s incident command facility to provide a more-coordinated response to the migrant arrivals.

“We’re bringing together smart people from both sides trying to navigate through this,” she said. “And so we will be helpful in the communication flow.”

In her letter to Biden, Hochul made the case that the migrant crisis is beyond the state and city's ability to handle on their own.

"Given the size of the of the (sic) humanitarian crisis, the State lacks the infrastructure, facilities, and resources necessary to meet the immediate demand to house and meet other basic needs of the large numbers of migrant arrivals," she wrote.