New York School Pivots to Remote Classes So Illegal Immigrants Can Shelter During Storm

Nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants are evacuated by school buses from tents at Floyd Bennett Field to a local high school in preparation for a storm with estimated wind speeds of more than 70 mph in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Jan. 9, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The decision to use a New York City high school to shelter 1,900 tent-dwelling illegal immigrants has outraged some parents and officials. They criticized the move as “foreseeable” and denounced the displacement of students, who will now “pivot” to remote learning.

Mayor Eric Adams’s office announced that because of an incoming storm, nearly 2,000 “families with children” who shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn will be temporarily relocated to James Madison High School out of an “overabundance of caution,” according to Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol.

“We want to make sure people are safe,” the mayor told reporters, according to New York Daily News.

Principal Jodie Cohen confirmed that James Madison High School would be closed on Jan 10. In a notice to parents, she said that classes “will be in session remotely for all students” while a “temporary overnight respite center” is activated by city officials on campus “due to the forecast of potential high winds and flooding conditions.”

Buses were scheduled to move those encamped at the tent shelter to the high school at around 5 p.m. on Jan. 9. However, according to local media, some illegal immigrants were seen entering the school before classes were dismissed. The Epoch Times has contacted New York Public Schools for comment on this report.

The city expected heavy rains and 70-mile-per-hour winds overnight on Jan. 9 and into Jan. 10.

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NYC Public Schools said that most schools would “remain open, and drop-off and dismissal will proceed as scheduled.”

“To be clear, this relocation is a proactive measure being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and wellbeing of individuals working and living at the center,” City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said, according to the New York Post.

Mr. Adams has noted in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the illegal immigrants are expected to depart the next day. However, Ms. Mamelak said that they will remain at the high school “until any weather conditions that may arise have stabilized and the facility is once again fit for living.”

One of the illegal immigrants told Fox 5 News New York that they found out about the move about an hour beforehand.

Meanwhile, the New York Post reported that at least one woman, said to be a local parent, shouted at illegal immigrants as they arrived at the school.

‘Foreseeable’ Problem, Say Critics

Local elected officials are arguing that this problem was “foreseeable” with Floyd Bennett Field’s vulnerabilities during inclement weather, making it an unsustainable location for the shelter to have been set up.

The 2,000-bed tent facility faced issues with extreme weather last month, as heavy rain and 55-mph winds caused damage. The mayor has reportedly said that the tent is being anchored by “heavy stones.”

“This emergency move was accurately predicted by critics of the Floyd Bennett Field as a location to be used as a migrant shelter,” councilwoman Inna Vernikov said in a statement on Jan. 9.

Ms. Vernikov said that it was “unacceptable” that Brooklyn students are “being punished” and “forced to bear the burden of the migrant crisis perpetrated by” President Joe Biden.

“Our public schools are meant to be places of learning and growth for our children, and were never intended to be shelters or facilities for emergency housing,” she said.

Illegal immigrants leave their tents at Floyd Bennett Field to board school buses bound for a local high school in anticipation of a storm in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on Jan. 9, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Councilwoman Joann Ariola of Queens told the New York Post that it “did not take a fortune teller to predict” this scenario, saying the Floyd Bennett Field was “entirely unsuitable for a tent complex.”

“It was common sense,” she added, saying that she “warned the administration” but that they “refused to listen.”

The decision to house the illegal immigrants at Floyd Bennett Field spotlights “the mismanagement and waste of money that is all-too-present in City Hall’s approach” to the problem, according to Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat, Fox News reported.

New Yorkers ‘Displaced’ by Illegal Immigrants, Says State Assemblyman

New York state Assemblyman Michael Reilly added his voice to the chorus of criticism about the placement of temporary shelters for illegal immigrants in the state’s communities.

In a statement, he expressed concern that tax-paying New Yorkers might be “displaced to make room for those here illegally.”

Mr. Reilly cited the use of James Madison High School as a shelter during a storm as a concerning precedent, stating that officials are jeopardizing the safety of public institutions for youth.

“We have officially crossed the threshold,” Mr. Reilly said. “City officials are now setting a dangerous precedence (sic) for the future of this crisis, opening public institutions that are supposed to be among the safest places for our youth to an illegal and largely unknown migrant population.”

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, took to his platform to echo a similar concern.

“This is what happens when you run out of hotel rooms. Soon, cities will run out of schools to vacate. Then they will come for your homes,” Mr. Musk wrote.

More than 160,000 illegal immigrants have entered the “sanctuary city” since mid-2022, with some directly bused in from Texas. Mr. Adams has said that the influx could cripple the city.