City Hall, feds discuss migrant shelter at defunct NYC military base

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Migrants could move into Staten Island’s defunct Fort Wadsworth military base — as Mayor Eric Adams scrambles to house the crush of asylum seekers arriving in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.

City Hall and officials from the Department of Homeland Security are discussing a deal to lease the facility — which prior to closing in 1994 was one of the oldest military installations in the nation, according to sources.

A so-called “assessment team” from the DHS visited the site with a team of Adams administration staffers Thursday afternoon, sources familiar with the trip told The Post.

“The assessment team is looking at a whole host of locations,” said a DHS official.

“No determinations have been made yet.”

Fort Wadsworth is currently run by the US National Park Service and is open to visitors as a park and historical site.

Hizzoner would need permission from the Biden administration to lease the space and operate as an emergency migrant facility — which would add it to the almost 200 taxpayer-funded shelters housing more than 57,000 homeless asylum seekers across New York City.


Fort Wadsworth
Migrants could move into Staten Island’s defunct Fort Wadsworth military base.
Stefano Giovannini

Eric Adams
Fort Wadsworth is currently run by the US National Park Service and is open to visitors as a park and historical site.
ZUMAPRESS.com

Sources could not identify where exactly a shelter would be constructed on the 226-acre parkland, or how many migrants could be housed there.

The possibility of the slice of US history becoming a migrant shelter drew quick backlash from Staten Island councilmember Joe Borelli.

“If this is the federal government’s way of ‘solving’ the problem, Joe Biden has lost his mind,” the GOP city council minority leader said.

“When does the White House realize they’ve lost the plot?”


Joe Biden
The DHS team arrived in the Big Apple Wednesday and will report back to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with “recommended next steps,” according to a department official.
REUTERS

The ex-military base is also the start line of the annual New York City Marathon, which will be held this coming Nov. 5.

Sources also said DHS reviewed another area on the Floyd Bennett Field site in Brooklyn Friday, which is also run by the National Park Service. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul has been lobbying the federal government for approval on the site since early May. 

The DHS team arrived in the Big Apple 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 aide Tom Perez in a closed-door meeting Thursday to discuss the migrant surge, which is estimated to cost the Big Apple an eye-watering $12 billion over the next three years.

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