New York City to open fifth site to house asylum-seeking immigrants, Adams says

A fifth location is being opened by the New York City government, in Brooklyn, to temporarily house asylum-seeking migrants who are arriving in the city, most bused in from border states, Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced Saturday.

At least 1,000 single adult men are expected to be housed at the location, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, until cruise season begins in the spring, a news release from Adams’ office said.

Since last spring, at least 41,000 migrants have arrived in the city, straining the homeless shelter system and municipal budget at a cost that could balloon to $2 billion this year, Adams has said. Most have been placed in homeless shelters.

Under a legal settlement dating back decades, anyone who seeks shelter must be provided it — an entitlement and obligation that doesn't exist in most parts of the United States. 

Since the spring, governors in border states such as Texas have been busing migrants, primarily from Latin American countries, to Democratic-run cities in protest over President Joe Biden's border and immigration policies. New York City has explored contracting with cruise ships and summer camps to house the new arrivals.

The terminal, located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, is 180,000 square feet and on Buttermilk Channel, a tidal strait separating the borough from Governors Island. The migrants will get services such as “on site medical, food, laundry, and reconnections" there, the release said.

Some of the men will move to the cruise terminal from the Watson Hotel humanitarian relief center, in midtown, the release said. Families with children are to be housed at the Watson and elsewhere.

The locations where migrants are housed are called “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers,” or “HERRCs,” by Adams’ administration.

Adams has demanded that the state and federal government reimburse the city for costs associated with caring for the migrants, whom he has sometimes discouraged from coming to the city, saying, “there's no more room at the inn.”