(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The Biden administration blocked the approval of a proposed military site in New York City to accommodate illegal immigrants, despite Gov. Kathy Hochul’s personal pitch, the New York Post reported.
With New York City Mayor Eric Adams having recently announced that the Big Apple had hit its limit on immigration from the southern border, Hochul and company hoped to house the still burgeoning number of illegals at a 1,000-acre former military site, Floyd Bennett Airfield.
But the Biden administration’s refusal to sign off on the NYC military site for migrants has left Hochul in a delicate situation.
“Getting the federal government to change its position and tell an agency, the Department of the Interior, that they now have to accept migrants has been a complicated journey,” she told reporters after celebrating Manhattan’s Dominican Day Parade.
According to the governor, the feds did not absolutely disapprove, but rather demanded a more thorough plan.
“Today was a call to talk about logistics, any kind of legal barriers, any other obstacles,” she claimed.
“But I did not take away from that a hard ‘no,’” she continued. “So I think it’s just gonna be an evolving process.”
The city has looked into other options for housing illegals—including the Staten Island-based Fort Wadsworth, which city, state and federal officials toured last week.
The city, however, already has four immigration housing centers, one of which holds up to 2,000 people. According to Hochul’s office, the shelters cost the city $20 million every month.
The crisis, caused by President Joe Biden’s open-border policies, has been of particular concern for Adams, who previously suggested housing homeless illegal immigrants in “spare rooms” and drew backlash for shipping them out of New York City to its neighboring suburbs.
