A Venezuelan couple, Ronald and Franyenlin Castillo, spoke to the NY Post on Tuesday following their arrival from Texas with their three children all below the age of six years old. The couple told the outlet that they had refused to be bused to a Brooklyn shelter at Floyd Bennett Field after they were told by another migrant that it wasn’t “suitable” for children.
“They said they were going to send us to Floyd Bennett Field yesterday,” Ronald told the NY Post. “We did not go because we already know the situation over there.
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NEW: New York City migrants are now complaining and leaving their new makeshift tent city, brought to them by Mayor Eric Adams, because it wasn’t nice enough.
Remarkable.
The Adams administration attempted to transport dozens of families to a makeshift tent city in Brooklyn on… pic.twitter.com/IkHyhuzX94
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 13, 2023
Floyd Bennett Field, formally a federal-owned military base, was prepped by the city as a state-funded migrant shelter site offering multiple tents which reportedly include a registration area, classroom, and even a cafeteria, according to NY1. The site reportedly includes outdoor bathrooms and showers, and regular transportation shuttles.
The state currently has a one-year lease on the property, spending roughly $1.7 million in monthly rent with a total cost agreement of over $20.8 million, NY1 reported.
Ronald claimed that the workers at the intake center had told them that they would be on their own if they refused to stay at Floyd Bennett Field. “They told me that if we didn’t take that address … they couldn’t help us and we were going to stay on the streets or go to another city in the United States,” Ronald told The Post.
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While other illegal immigrants have also reportedly been refusing to stay at the Floyd Bennett Field, a city hall spokesperson stated that the Castillo family and others would have a bed there if needed.
“There’s a still a place for them at Floyd Bennett, if they go to the Roosevelt, they will given a place a Floyd Bennett,” the spokesperson told The Post.
Blue city residents and officials have begun to push back over illegal immigrants being bused and housed within the city. Chicago residents at a Brighton Park neighborhood meeting recently rejected housing for more illegal immigrants, denying the construction of a proposed encampment for approximately 2,000 migrants.