New York closes large complex that housed hundreds of immigrant families

New York closed a migrant shelter that was located in a former airport. The city also announced the closure of other major shelters for asylum seekers, in its efforts to reduce emergency housing built in response to a surge in migration.

New York City closed a sprawling tent complex housing hundreds of immigrant families at a remote former Brooklyn airport, while scaling back the emergency shelter system created in response to a surge of refugees from the southern border that has has been steadily decreasing in recent months.

The last of the roughly 2,000 people living on a windswept runway at Floyd Bennett Field, once the city's first airport, left the closed camp over the weekend, and crews were seen this week dismantling the huge structure.

Advocates had warned that the facility, which is built on leased federal land, could be vulnerable to immigration raids when President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday.

Jehinzo González, a 47-year-old Venezuelan, said he, his wife and three children were moved to another nearby city-run shelter just a week before Christmas.

“It is a more dignified place for the family. We have three rooms for the five of us. Comfortable beds, private bathroom,” he said in Spanish, marveling at the contrast between the hard cots they have slept on in their single room at the airport tent camp since arriving in the country in October.

More than 250,000 immigrants have arrived in New York since spring 2022, but new arrivals have declined for 27 consecutive weeks and are now at the lowest point in more than a year, according to Mayor Eric Adams' administration.

Currently, about 50,000 migrants are housed in roughly 200 temporary sites, up from nearly 70,000 last January.

But the constant noise of shelter closures and forced relocations has also forced many migrant families to alter their routines of work, education and other daily needs just as they try to settle in the city.

Gabriel Montilla, a migrant from Venezuela, said he now spends hours each day in transit, walking his three young children to school in Brooklyn and rushing to make appointments after his family was recently moved from the now-closed Floyd Bennett Field camp to a hotel in Queens.

On a frigid, windy Tuesday, he had enough time after dropping off the kids to travel through Brooklyn and file immigration papers at a government office. “If it were summer or something without such cold weather, it would be different,” Montilla said in Spanish. “But at least for now it is too strong, too strong; “It's difficult.”

Immigrant advocacy groups also say more needs to be done to transition immigrants into more permanent housing. Among the priorities should be things ranging from ending controversial policies that limit the amount of time immigrants can stay in a shelter to investing in better case management and legal assistance to secure their immigration status and work permits, said Will Watts, deputy executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless.

Newly arrived immigrants should also be brought into the city's traditional homeless shelter system so they are no longer segregated and vulnerable to immigration authorities, said Steph Rudolph, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society. Trump has promised a nationwide immigration crackdown, including mass deportations, after taking office.

“Now that the numbers are going down, there is no longer the justification for a separate system,” Rudolph said. “It makes sense to put everyone under the same system.”

Gonzalez said he worries about his family's future even though they were relieved to be moved out of the airport shelter. “They should respect the laws,” he said of the incoming administration, noting that he and his wife have applied for asylum, have their work documents in order and are employed part-time at a local grocery store.

“We are doing everything as dictated by the laws of the country. We hope to God that everything turns out well.” More shelters are scheduled to close in the coming weeks. Another huge tent complex, in a park on Randall's Island off Manhattan, has been steadily emptied of residents ahead of its scheduled closure next month.

And on Friday, the Adams administration announced the closure of 10 more shelters, including one in a highway-side warehouse complex in Brooklyn that housed more than 3,300 single men at its peak. In total, the measures will reduce migrant housing capacity by approximately 7,800 beds, after taking into account a new physical shelter being built in the Bronx to house more than 2,200 men who are being transferred from tent shelters. campaign destined to close, according to the mayor's office.