City Explores Closing Brooklyn Migrant Shelter: Report

BROOKLYN, NY — City officials are exploring closing the migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, the New York Times reported.

The officials are citing concerns that the shelter, which is on federal land, will become a target of incoming President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport and detain migrants once in office, according to the NYT.

The migrant shelter, which sits on a former World War II navel air station on Brooklyn's coastline, has 2,000 cots and houses around 500 families, the NYT reported. The emergency shelter was set up last year, when President Joe Biden approved the lease in August 2023.

Since then, the shelter has been scrutinized by migrant advocates, who say that the shelter is cold, far away, and in a flooding zone, Patch previously reported.

Right now, the city is determining where to relocate the families living at the shelter, before they move forward with any plans to close the shelter, according to the report.

Of all the migrant shelters in New York City, only the Floyd Bennett Field shelter is on federal land, NYT reported.

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