MI Responds: Nearly 2,000 Migrants Evacuated from Tent Shelters at Floyd Bennet Field into Brooklyn High School

New York, NY – This week, New York City evacuated nearly 2,000 migrants from a tent shelter area in Brooklyn due to inclement weather, lodging them in James Madison High School. Students were forced to move to remote learning as a result. Manhattan Institute fellows weigh in on the city’s decision: 

"America is and should be a welcoming nation to immigrants, but welcome should not come at the expense of American students. It's unacceptable that work-capable adult immigrants are receiving free shelter from the city, and it's even more outrageous that New York students are going to miss in-person schooling because of the misguided policy of Right to Shelter. I only hope that the 60-day limit on shelter recently imposed by the mayor can finally end this crisis." 

Daniel Di Martino is a graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he focuses on high-skill immigration policy.  

"This is just the latest example of politicians sending the false message to American families that their child’s regular presence in school is non-essential. Is it any surprise that our schools have experienced unprecedented rates of chronic absenteeism since the pandemic? When adults signal to kids that attending school isn’t that important, they tend to listen."   

Michael Hartney is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Hoover fellow, and assistant professor at Boston College. 

“This outcome points out the mayor's mismanagement – he well knew that this location was a flood plain, but set up this shelter there, anyway. Area pols warned about this!”  

Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist at the New York Post. 

Please send media inquiries to press officer Nicolas Abouchedid at nabouchedid@manhattan.institute.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images