NEW YORK (NewsNation) — The Biden administration approved the use of an old New York City airfield to house asylum seekers Monday after months of negotiations with the state government.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement he and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had been urging the federal government to allow officials to use the Floyd Bennett Field to house migrants who had been bussed to the city from the southern Border.
However, a date for when the shelter will be made available to house migrants has not yet been set.
But while this was a small win for the mayor, he made it clear this is not a permanent fix.
“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,” Adams said in a statement.
The city will continue to fight for expedited work authorization for migrants, a federal declaration of emergency and a national and state decompression strategy to combat the migrant crisis, Adams said.
The airfield required federal permission to use because it is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which is a national park, The City reported. Hochul said it could potentially be used to house more than 2,000 migrants, the report said.