Last week we reported on the plan to shelter New York City’s oversupply of illegal migrants at Floyd Bennet Field, part of our National Parks system. The point we made then was that National Parks are a resource for American citizens and legal residents, not for illegals who have sneaked across our border. Now it appears that this particular site is not that appealing to the world’s entitled masses anyway.
On Sunday, November 12, the first wave of migrants were bused into the facility for a look around at the large tent and its surroundings. Of the 23 families intially sent, only 13 elected to stay, however. The Washington Examiner spoke with a few who were offended by the prospect:
Another immigrant who had purportedly been housed in Midtown Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel headed back to the hotel, according to the report. “They are going to take us back to the train so we can go back to 45th Street,” the immigrant said. “We didn’t know we were coming here. They just said they were taking us to a shelter. I cannot stay here. … This is crazy,” they said.
Another who turned up his nose said:
We weren’t told where we were going. I work in the Bronx. My kids go to school in the Bronx. For us to live out here is ridiculous. We’re going back.
Many of the complaints had to do with the out-of-the-way Brooklyn location. State Assemblywoman Jaime Williams said:
They weren’t sure what they were doing here. They don’t want to be here, and they asked to leave. They said, “It’s so isolated, how could I possibly get back and forth to work?” or, “Getting my children to school from here would be insane.” So they all asked to leave.
The illegals, who had been sheltered for months at leased hotels, were also offended by the conditions at the facility, which is an old, largely neglected airfield. Republican New York Councilwoman Joann Ariola agreed that the Field was in sorry shape:
When they arrived at such a remote area as Floyd Bennett Field, they were shocked to see the condition. They were shocked to see that it was semi-congregate living, that it was no longer a hotel room, that there was not transportation provided for their child to get back and forth to school, and they got right back on the bus, and they turned around.
The city, nevertheless, expects to house 2,000 migrants on the property, which it has leased for $22 million a year. That cost, Ariola, says is just the beginning, however:
That doesn’t take into consideration the personnel that’s there, the food that’s being provided, and also the fact that they have to do improvements to Floyd Bennett field. Like redo the runways, redo the visitor center, the broken down hangar. This is a taxpayer money pit.
For his part, at-the-end-of-his-rope Mayor Adams, who visited the facility after the migrants’ rejection, admitted: “This is not, you know, the best conditions. . . .”
Then he added, as usual, “[W]e can’t say it any better: we need help.”
Adams of course means help in the pecuniary sense, but the help NYC and the rest of America really needs is border control combined with prompt, large-scale deportations, help we know will never be forthcoming from the Biden regime.
For more, see the Washington Examiner.