Migrants would be housed at Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field under tentative White House plan

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has given tentative approval for New York to use federally owned Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to house more than 2,000 migrants as New York City grapples with an influx of asylum-seekers arriving primarily from southern border states, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday.

Hochul said in a statement: “After months of negotiations, the Biden administration has provided us with a tentative contract” to use the former airfield as a shelter site for asylum-seeking migrants.

“It’s a big step because the answer one month ago was ‘no,’ ” Hochul told reporters at an unrelated infrastructure event in the Bronx. “I’m viewing this as a significant development by the administration in Washington that we need more help here.”

Hochul said the agreement would allow the state to work with New York City Mayor Eric Adams "to set up a Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Center at Floyd Bennett Field with the capacity to shelter more than 2,000 asylum-seekers.”

The city has housed tens of thousands of migrants since last spring and experienced a dramatic uptick after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, started busing migrants to cities run by Democrats such as New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, Adams said.

Adams praised the state and federal partnership, but he said the city still was waiting for federal help such as a plan to relocate migrants around the nation.

"Let’s be clear: 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.

Both he and Hochul repeated calls for the federal government to ease permit restrictions to allow migrants to work immediately as they await determination of their asylum cases.

“Ultimately the path out of this crisis is granting work authorization immediately, so these individuals can move out of shelter and into independent living arrangements,” Hochul said.

Under federal law, asylum applicants must wait 180 days after filing asylum bids to apply for temporary work permits. Very few migrants have formally filed for asylum, according to the Adams administration. Migrants have one year from crossing to border to file.

Hochul told reporters in the Bronx the state would allocate $20 million to help asylum-seekers find work.

"That is how we start changing the trajectory of this crisis," Hochul said.

Asked by Newsday in June about Hochul and Adams' requests for an expedited work permitting process, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she could provide no update on the issue. But she said, "We’re going to continue to assist the best way that we can."

The White House and the federal Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Albany, Hochul said she didn't yet know the details of the tentative lease agreement for Floyd Bennett Field but said the state would cover the cost of building housing and installation of air conditioning, heat and plumbing.

Hochul said the proposed Floyd Bennett Field site would “be critical in the interim for the City of New York to provide humanitarian aid, as we work collectively to get people on the path to asylum-seeker status and legal work.”

New York City's struggle to provide shelter for the growing number of migrants has prompted counties and municipalities, primarily those run by Republicans, to resist efforts to relocate migrants to neighboring suburbs.

Last week, Democratic Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said Nassau Coliseum should be among the options for housing some migrants. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, responded there was "no plan whatsoever" to use the Uniondale arena.

County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, issued an emergency order in May to block Suffolk hotels, motels and shelters from contracting with New York City to accept asylum-seekers. Bellone said the state should coordinate the response and choose federal and state sites to place them.

The Creedmoor Psychiatric Center campus in Queens near the Nassau border is New York City's newest migrant shelter site. It is expected to hold some 1,000 homeless migrants in tents set up last week.

The city also is expected this month to set up tents for as many as 3,000 migrants on Randall's Island.