(The Center Square) — New Jersey officials are pushing back against the Biden administration’s plans to relocate asylum-seekers from neighboring New York City to a federally owned airport in the state.
The Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township is one of 11 federally owned facilities the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified in a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams as a potential site to house an overflow of tens of thousands of migrants from the neighboring state.
Gov. Phil Murphy says New Jersey doesn’t have the resources to take in migrants from New York City and so far hasn’t been asked by the Biden administration yet to accept anyone.
“I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” the Democrat told News 12 New Jersey last week.
Murphy, a Democrat and longtime ally of Biden, had once voiced support to make New Jersey a “sanctuary” state that limits cooperation with federal immigration officials.
On Friday, Atlantic County officials held a press briefing to decry the plans and call on Murphy to reject the Biden administration’s efforts to relocate migrants to the county, one of New Jersey’s poorest regions.
“Our very way of life is being threatened right now,” Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, a Republican, said in remarks. “I don’t want anybody to think we don’t have compassion, we most certainly do, but this is a problem that we can’t solve.”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-NJ, joined the chorus of opposition over the migrant relocations and took aim at the Biden administration, saying it “has continually refused to enforce our nation’s rule of law.”
“Instead of securing our southern border, the administration is spending taxpayer dollars to fly illegal immigrants across the country to areas that simply do not have the want or resources to house them,” Van Drew said in a statement. “This is their mess, they deal with it and leave South Jersey out of it.”
New York City has seen an influx of more than 100,000 asylum-seekers over the past year and a surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. The city is providing housing, food and other necessities for more than 60,000 migrants, forcing it to open more than 200 shelters and tighten rules on its emergency housing program.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been negotiating with the Biden administration for approval to house asylum-seekers at federal properties across the state, many of them national parks.
More than 100,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in New York City over the past year, straining an already overburdened emergency shelter system and causing friction between Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams says the city is caring for more than 60,000 migrants at more than 200 emergency shelter locations across the city. He said the cost of providing shelter, food and other necessities for migrants is expected to top $12 billion.
