City Hall and the FBI discuss migrant housing at a defunct New York military base
Migrants could move into Staten Island’s disused Fort Wadsworth military base – while Mayor Eric Adams scrambles to accommodate the throng of asylum seekers arriving in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.
City Hall and Department of Homeland Security officials are discussing a lease for the facility — which sources say was one of the oldest military facilities in the country before it closed in 1994.
A so-called “assessment team” from DHS visited the site Thursday afternoon along with a team of employees from the Adams administration, sources familiar with the trip told the Post.
“The assessment team is reviewing a number of sites,” said a DHS official.
“No decisions have been made yet.”
Fort Wadsworth is currently operated by the US National Park Service and is open to visitors as a park and historic site.
Hizzoner would need approval from the Biden administration to lease the premises and operate it as a shelter for migrants — which would add it to the nearly 200 taxpayer-funded shelters that house more than 57,000 homeless asylum seekers across New York City.
Sources could not say exactly where in the 226-hectare park site an emergency shelter would be built or how many migrants could be housed there.
The possibility that the piece of US history could become a haven for migrants sparked quick backlash from Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli.
“If the federal government ‘solves’ the problem that way, Joe Biden is out of his mind,” said the Republican Party’s minority city council leader.
“When will the White House realize it’s lost track?”
The former military base is also the starting line for the annual New York City Marathon, which will take place on November 5th.
Sources said DHS also inspected another area on Friday at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, also operated by the National Park Service.
Governor Kathy Hochul has been lobbying the federal government for approval of the site since the beginning of May.
The DHS team arrived in the Big Apple on Wednesday and will report back to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with “recommended next steps,” according to a department official.
Meanwhile, Adams and Hochul also met with top White House adviser Tom Perez in a closed session Thursday to discuss the influx of migrants estimated to cost the Big Apple a staggering $12 billion over the next three years becomes.
