Illegal immigrants in New York City who are being housed at the controversial tent shelter at the historic Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn...
Illegal immigrants in New York City who are being housed at the controversial tent shelter at the historic Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn have started going door-to-door in nearby neighborhoods to beg residents for food, clothes and money.
The 2,000-bed shelter at the historic former airport opened in November to house migrant families after the administration of Mayor Eric Adams said the city's hotels and other dedicated and repurposed migrant shelters had hit capacity.
The migrant shelter complex within the field is made up of four massive tents divided into private pods where families sleep on cots. The tents have heating and they are fortified with ballasts that can reportedly withstand winds of nearly 70 miles an hour. The dormitories do not have restrooms, but there are portable toilets and showers stationed nearby.
Currently, the migrant shelter has an estimated 1,720 illegals residing in it.
Brooklyn residents feeling terrorized by flood of migrants
David Fitzgerald, 62, a resident of Brooklyn's Marine Park neighborhood, some four miles from the migrant shelter, has noticed that many of the migrants residing in Floyd Bennett Field are starting to venture out into the borough to panhandle, sparking safety fears among many of his neighbors.
"There's definitely an invasion of immigrants from Floyd Bennett Field in our neighborhood and I see them sitting outside stores … outside the mall and going around to all the houses in the neighborhood, knocking on the door looking for money," said Fitzgerald. "I certainly sympathize with their situation, but to have people knocking at your door looking for food that don't speak English? It's annoying. I don't like it. We have never had this before, ever."
"We had a nice, close, neighborhood group of people. Now we have a literal invasion of people knocking on doors begging, asking for money," he said. He recalled how Ring camera footage of his front door captured one incident with a migrant father and his children knocking on his door. The father used an app on his phone to translate into English that he was Venezuelan and he needed money and clothing.
"There's a lot of retired people here, a lot of families here. They're at the stage of their lives where they like peace and quiet. This is the opposite," said Fitzgerald. "We're not liking what we see."
Paul Sanzone, 56, another resident of Marine Park who was lived in the neighborhood for 30 years, said migrants are now knocking on his door on a "regular basis."
"I am all for charity, one hundred percent. I'll give you the shirt off my back, the money in my pocket. But not this way. It has got to stop," said Sanzone. He added that he and his wife have been "on edge" ever since two people who recently came by their front door looking for food and money were wearing ankle monitors. "It's alarming."
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