Bipartisan officials address migrant issue: ‘A national crisis in our backyard,’ hope to cancel shelter lease at Floyd Bennett

January 29, 2024 Wayne Daren Schneiderman

From left: Assemblymember Jaime Williams of southeastern Brooklyn (D-59); Ken Spencer, chairman of the U.S. Park Police, FOP; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-11/Southwest Brooklyn-Staten Island); and City Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-32/Jamaica Bay and Rockaway).
Photos: Wayne Daren Schneiderman/Brooklyn Eagle

Share this:

FLOYD BENNETT FIELD – A rainy and foggy morning served as the backdrop for a bipartisan group of elected officials — which included Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Southwest Brooklyn-Staten Island) — seeking to revoke the migrant shelter lease at Floyd Bennett Field on Thursday.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-11) addressing the media.

The objective at the modestly attended press conference was to urge U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to pass Malliotakis’ bill — the Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023 (H.R. 5283) – prohibiting federal funding from being used to provide housing for migrants on any federal parkland and retroactively abolishing the lease agreement at Floyd Bennett Field.

The bill was passed by the House with bipartisan support on Nov. 30, 2023, but Schumer has yet to bring the bill for a vote in the Senate. The senator could not be reached for comment.

“I know this bill would pass the Senate if [Schumer] brought it to the floor for a vote,” Malliotakis said, “because a majority of the people in the Senate do not feel that our federal land should be used and turned into migrant encampments.”

City Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-32/Jamaica Bay and Rockaway) at the lectern.

Malliotakis was joined by Assemblymember Jaime Williams of southeastern Brooklyn (D-59), City Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-32/Jamaica Bay and Rockaway), and Ken Spencer, chairman of the U.S. Park Police, Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).

“The reality of this is that it just simply isn’t sustainable,” Malliotakis continued. “It’s not a matter of compassion; it’s a matter of having our laws enforced and making sure we know who is coming in and out of our country — and that it’s done in an appropriate way.”

Malliotakis said she is a staunch supporter of “legal immigration.”

“It has to be done the way our families came — where it’s orderly and in the rightful way,” she noted.

Assemblymember Jaime Williams of southeastern Brooklyn (D-59).

Ariola addressed the topic of “right to shelter” — a legal right providing that anyone in New York City without a place to live is guaranteed safe, decent and appropriate shelter so they don’t end up on the streets.

“We must interpret the right to shelter as what it is meant to be — for our homeless New Yorkers,” Ariola said. “We’ve apparently forgotten about the 65,000 homeless New Yorkers that were here when [former NYC Mayor] Bill de Blasio left office. Where are they? Did our homeless veterans evaporate?

“If we don’t do something to stop this flow [of migrants], it is going to continue. We have been asking [President] Joe Biden; we have been begging Senator Schumer — we need the borders closed. But if that doesn’t happen, we have to do something that’s going to save New York City and the surrounding communities.”

Ken Spencer, chairman of the U.S. Park Police, FOP, making a point.

Williams referred to the current state of affairs as “a national crisis in our backyard,” and also spoke to the right to shelter, pointing out that “some feel as though we should shelter the world — although our veterans, other individuals and those facing mental health issues are out there on our streets. We need the federal government to stand up; it’s not about being a Democrat or a Republican.”

From left: Assemblymember Jaime Williams of southeastern Brooklyn (D-59) and Ken Spencer, chairman of the U.S. Park Police, FOP.

Williams, a Democrat, concluded her speech by addressing Malliotakis, her Republican colleague.

“I support you, I support your bill, and I hope that this lease at Floyd Bennett Field can be revoked,” Williams said. “And if that doesn’t happen, were not going to stop fighting.”

Spencer, who represents officers of the United States Park Police, discussed public safety and understaffing issues.

“We have a staffing crisis as it is, and our patrol has been diverted from taking care of what we are supposed to be taking care of,” he explained. “There have been a lot of incidents occurring since this [migrant] tent has been put up, including a recent bomb threat against the tent itself.”

Spencer pointed out that the spring and summer months are coming, and traffic in the vicinity is slated to grow.

“If things continue as they have been, the incidents that have been taking place here could potentially increase,” he said.