OAN’s Caitlin Sinclair
2:33 PM – Wednesday, May 17, 2023
New York City is backing off a controversial plan to retrofit public school gymnasiums as emergency migrant shelters — without ruling out their future use.
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Mayor Eric Adams (D-N.Y.) had been eyeing 20 school gyms to house illegal migrants as the city struggles to find space and braces for a potential surge.
But as parent-led protests continued for a second day, the Adams administration pumped the brakes Wednesday on the approach. The city will move migrants out of a gym on the grounds of P.S. 188 in Coney Island— this was confirmed by City Councilman Justin Brannan earlier on Wednesday.
Brannan announced the decision in a tweet.
Still, city officials declined to get rid of the plan entirely, leaving the door open to use school gyms if it proves necessary.
Meanwhile, Adams said 50% of city hotel rooms are currently filled by migrants — and the city is having a hard time finding any other room at hotels for them.
“Almost 50% of those hotel rooms are being taken up by migrant asylum seekers, that we’re paying for,” Adams said. “So instead of money coming from people who are visiting us a our tourism and our Broadway plays, instead of them using those hotels, we are using those hotels.”
He said the city has reached out to hotels and many say they don’t want to get into the shelter business.
Again, who pays the price? Tax paying American citizens once again.
Mayor Eric Adams’ office released the following statement:
“As we’ve been saying for months, we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, having opened approximately 150 emergency sites, including eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers, to serve more than 65,000 asylum seekers. We received more than 4,200 asylum seekers last week alone and continue to receive hundreds of asylum seekers every day. We are opening emergency shelters and respite centers daily, but we are out of space. As the mayor has said, nothing is off the table as we work to fill our moral mandate, but we should all expect this crisis to affect every city service. We will continue to communicate with local elected officials as we open more emergency sites.”
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