A Republican congressman from Long Island accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams of playing politics and sabotaging his tour through a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport where hundreds of adult immigrant men are now being housed.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a first-term lawmaker whose Nassau County district runs up along JFK, had received confirmation Thursday for an official scheduled walk-through of the building, but he was ultimately barred from entering.
The city rented the vacant, one-room warehouse from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to shelter 800 immigrant men on airport property after they arrived in the city from the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I don’t take it personal. I believe that it’s politics,” D’Esposito told the Washington Examiner. “You have someone from the federal government who sits on both the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, both committees heavily involved with the border, with immigration, with the FAA and our transportation hubs … I find it a little bit insulting.”
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Last week, D’Esposito and others had voiced opposition to the mayor’s plan to house immigrant men at this location after dozens of counties upstate refused to take in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who have shown up in New York City over the past year with the understanding the “sanctuary zone” would welcome and provide for them.
Hundreds of men were moved into the facility Wednesday, but D’Esposito was not let inside the site despite his status as a federal lawmaker.
“At the last minute, the mayor’s office had canceled the actual visit of the facility,” D’Esposito said.
D’Esposito met with the Port Authority, Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees outside the warehouse. All have offices at the airport.
The government employees who he spoke with painted a bleak picture of what life was like inside the warehouse and suggested the way men were housed was in violation of the city’s own human care standards, such as for homeless facilities. Endless rows of cots fill the space and there is no privacy or rooms.
He learned that the hundreds of men must wait turns to use portable toilets and portable showers. An outside company was contracted by the city to bring in meals three times per day.
“It’s very clear that this isn’t a facility that really meets any of the standards for what they should be operating. I think [Adams] knows that,” said D’Esposito. “It’s hypocritical. … [Democrats] loved to criticize the way that individuals are treated at [CBP’s] points of entry and elsewhere, but yet we have individuals who are coming into this country because they are looking for that American dream — that so-called land of milk and honey — but instead of that, they’re putting them in an empty warehouse at one of the largest transportation hubs in the probably on the East Coast.”
Because the warehouse is located on restricted property that the public cannot access and the men living on site cannot freely walk around outside, the city has brought in buses to transport those on site from the warehouse to an undisclosed location off-site. People can come and go as they please, but D’Esposito said the situation would be challenging for any New Yorker to navigate at such a large airport, much less someone who may not speak English and is trying to find permanent housing and work.
Federal officials told the congressman that they were not involved in any way and that they also had not been given the names of those who were living on-site.
“They do not have the identifications of the individuals who are at JFK,” D’Esposito said, referencing conversations with CBP officers whose airport offices are walking distance from the warehouse. “Everyone on the property has some concerns about the foot traffic that could potentially occur.”
Two marked New York Police Department officers were on-site during the visit outside of the warehouse.
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“This isn’t a political issue,” D’Esposito said. “This is an American issue. And if he’s truly looking to find solutions to the problems that he’s facing, he should be welcoming to anyone and everyone in any party.”
Original Location: Eric Adams accused of playing politics over migrant housing site at JFK Airport
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