Lawmakers Block Migrant Housing

(The Center Square) — A bipartisan group of New York lawmakers has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the use of a federally owned airfield in Brooklyn to house asylum-seekers.

The lawsuit, filed by four Democrats, a Republican congresswoman and several Staten Island residents in the state Superior Court, asks a judge to block New York City from using Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field or any other federally owned site in the Gateway National Recreation Area to provide temporary housing for migrants.

In the 48-page complaint, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have contributed to the influx of migrants by declaring themselves “sanctuary” jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with immigration crackdowns and public announcements that migrants would get housing, food, health care and other support.

“In short, this problem is to a very large extent one of the defendants’ own making,” they wrote. “Now in an attempt to manage the problem, defendants have turned to violating the law and placing undue burdens upon communities which are ill-suited to withstand the strains of new non-indigenous populations being placed on them.” (Excerpt from Just the News.)