New York City Mayor Eric Adams and city leaders are facing backlash from residents over their decision to house migrants in several public schools.
The decision has sparked outrage among community members, who argue that schools are unsuitable places for migrants to stay.
Lakeisha Bowers, a resident whose son graduated from a Brooklyn school now housing migrants, and NYC council member Ari Kagan (R) spoke to "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday to explain why community members are upset. Kagan stated that "It is not a hotel, it's not a shelter. It is a school gym. So the children of Coney Island should not pay for the misguided policies of the Biden administration."
According to the New York Post, dozens of migrants will be housed at the gym outside the P.S. 188 Brooklyn elementary school, with no timetable on how long the building will be used as an emergency site for migrants.
The migrants' arrival comes just two days after the principal at PS 188 warned the city to choose the school facility as an emergency, temporary site for migrants.
Several migrant families were supposed to be sent to the stand-alone gym adjacent to the rest of the school building late last week, but the plan was put on hold amid community outrage.
A woman who lives near the Coney Island school expressed her frustration, saying, "Why a school? That's the part I don't get. There's always other options. A lot of the buildings around here, they have fallout shelters that are spacious, and used for emergencies."
The city has been struggling to house and care for the influx of migrants from across the southern border, many bussed from border states like Texas. Over the last year, tens of thousands of migrants have reached the city.
Bowers described the community's reaction when parents began to learn about the plan, which reportedly extends to at least six more Brooklyn-area schools. "It was very hurtful, parents were outraged. We just feel that there wasn't enough time, enough notice for parents. Friday morning when they came to school is when they found out. And then Saturday night, they were there."
Kagan said he found out about the decision on social media, which he said was "not acceptable." He called on the city council, which is majority Democrat, to address the city's sanctuary city status, calling this an "absolutely emergency situation created by the federal government, by open borders policies."
Bowers said placing migrants at the school is "unfair." "Our community is very small. We're a close family, but we're lacking a lot of programs in the community and you're taking away one of the spaces that our children use. Again, with all due respect to the mayor, please reconsider this."
According to the NYC Mayor's office, "Every single day, hundreds of asylum seekers arrive in New York with no support. After hundreds more arrived the day before and thousands more in the days and weeks earlier. But once again, we're stepping up to the absence of national solution to this national crisis and are coming up with our own decompression strategy."
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