NYC's Migrant Tent City Decamps To Randall's Island After Flood

NEW YORK CITY — Rain and flooding over the weekend washed out city officials' plan to put migrants in a massive tent city in The Bronx, Mayor Eric Adams announced last Monday.

Adams said the tent city for asylum seekers — officially dubbed a "humanitarian emergency response and relief center" — will be relocated to Randall's Island, and be smaller than the originally planned 1,000-migrant camp.

"This new location is less prone to flooding, is closer to public transportation, and will provide temporary respite to 500 asylum seekers," he said in a statement.

Adams offered more details, with prodding from reporters, about the move to Randall's Island in an afternoon news conference.

He said the flooding at the Orchard Beach site in The Bronx could have been handled, but officials ultimately chose to move to Randall's Island as part of an undefined "pivot and shift" strategy.

As far as critics who called the original plan "poorly conceived," Adams brushed them off.

“Those who felt as though we didn’t do it with the good hearts that we do, there’s nothing I can do about that,” he said.

“We’re going to get through this crisis. We’re New Yorkers.”

Zachary Iscol, the city's emergency management commissioner, said officials previously looked at Randall's Island as a site but opted not to choose it because of "seasonal use." Those activities are now over, and using the island will actually be cheaper than The Bronx, he said, without offering a dollar figure.

City Hall's plan to house asylum seekers in tents while they await processing into the city's shelter system has been troubled from the get-go.

First, Adams announced the plan in a much-maligned press release with few details.

Then, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson criticized the plan by noting the original Orchard Beach is prone to flooding and has limited access to public transportation.

Finally, the mayor said the tent camp likely wouldn't follow certain rules set by the city's right-to-shelter rules — a stance that raised concerns among advocates.

Gibson's worry came true over the weekend, as remnants from Hurricane Ian dumped rain over the city and flooded the Orchard Beach site.

Despite the stumbles, Adams said the city will press forward to deal with what he dubbed a "humanitarian crisis created by human hands."

More than 16,000 asylum seekers have ended up in the city in recent months, Adams said, offering an updated, increased estimate of how migrants arrived. Many migrants were bused from Texas by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in an effort to raise a political point about the situation on the United States-Mexico border.

Beyond the tent city, City Hall has reportedly been looking at leasing a cruise ship to house migrants.

"We expect this site to open in approximately the same timeframe as the originally planned location," Adams said about the Randall's Island site.

"And we continue to build out our options and explore additional sites as we handle this humanitarian crisis created by human hands."