More than 100 New York residents and elected officials gathered outside Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn on Sunday to call on city leaders to shut down a problematic migrant tent city on federal property.
Local residents, draped in American flags, gathered at the sprawling site in a caravan of up to 90 vehicles to demand that city officials not renew the lease on the 2,000-bed migrant shelter, which has been the target of complaints from nearby residents since it opened last year.
“Illegal immigrants are being prioritized over New Yorkers, and many New Yorkers feel like this crisis is uncontroversial and has no end in sight,” Marine Park resident Brenda Lee told The Post.
“We need to voice exactly what this is going to be and where and how it’s going to end,” Lee said. “Will this ever end?”
Cars and trucks parked at the scene had signs in their windows reading “Protect the American Dream,” “Stop Immigrant Crime” and even “Cancel the Lease to Floyd Bennett.”
“There are other places these migrants from Base Camp can go,” City Council Member Joan Arriola (R-Brooklyn) told protesters at the scene. “We need to be able to go and enjoy our national parks, and that’s been taken away from us.”
“That was taken from us this summer. It should not be renewed,” she said.
State Assemblyman Jamie Williams (R-Brooklyn) also spoke at the raucous rally.
“Today we are saying, ‘No more,'” Williams said. “It’s time to take back our communities, our cities, our state. But we want you to know that we are sending a very clear message to individuals who are behaving like thugs that we need to close our borders.”
Floyd Bennett Field is one of many shelters across the five boroughs being converted into evacuation centers to house thousands of migrants flooding into New York in 2022 and beyond.
The vast majority are asylum seekers sent north from the U.S.-Mexico border to “sanctuary cities” like New York, straining New York City’s capacity to house them.
The Post reported in January that the former airfield had become a hotbed of unrest and violence since it was converted into a migrant shelter, after a domestic violence incident there in December and a string of assault arrests and gun seizures, police said.
In January, migrants, including children, had to be temporarily evacuated in the middle of the night as dangerously strong winds approached the city, raising concerns about toppling tents and deadly flooding.
Local residents have continually complained about their unruly and nuisance neighbors.
“This isn’t about politics,” Guardian Angels founder Curtis Suriawa told protesters on Sunday. “This is about what’s right and what’s wrong. This rally is about supporting immigrants, legal immigrants.”
“It’s not safe for immigrants, it’s a flood plain, it’s a terrible situation for our neighbors and our quality of life,” he added. “We’re going to keep up the pressure until they close Floyd Bennett Field.”
