An open border and a closed school building.
That’s the reality playing out for the roughly 3,800 students who attend James Madison High School in Brooklyn. On Wednesday, those students are “attending” classes remotely because city officials booted them from their actual classrooms to house migrants.
On Tuesday, city officials announced that nearly 2,000 migrants being housed in tents at historic Floyd Bennett Field would be temporarily relocated to James Madison High School ahead of a powerful winter storm that brought heavy rain and high winds to New York City.
City Hall said in a statement:
The health and safety of migrants in our care is always a top priority, which is why we are currently overseeing the relocation of 1,900 guests from the humanitarian emergency response and relief center at Floyd Bennett Field due to an updated forecast with increased wind speeds estimated to be at over 70 MPH tonight.
To be clear, this relocation is a proactive measure being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals working and living at the center.
The migrants were officially relocated Tuesday evening when after-school activities had concluded.
While moving the migrants was a necessary decision for their protection, parents are upset that local officials chose to disrupt the learning environment rather than find a more suitable solution to the problem.
Indeed, Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R) said the need to move the migrants was “entirely foreseeable.”
“This is both unacceptable and was entirely foreseeable, as Floyd Bennett Field is vulnerable to all forms of increment [sic] weather conditions and is not a sustainable housing facility,” Vernikov said in a statement. “As an elected official representing this community, I demand a full stop to using our public schools as a shelter ever again.”
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R) agreed.
“I warned the administration that something like this would happen from day one and they refused to listen,” she told the New York Post. “Floyd Bennett Field is entirely unsuitable for a tent complex, and how we are wasting taxpayer dollars to evacuate nearly 2,000 people.”
“This did not take a fortune teller to predict,” she said. “It was common sense.”
The migrants returned to their temporary tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field early Wednesday morning, according to the New York Daily News. That means students should return to their classrooms on Thursday.
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