Migrants Should Be Sent to National Mall in DC — Not Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth; Borough President Calls for Migrants to be Housed in Washington, D.C., Instead of Fort Wadsworth

Migrants should be sent to National Mall in DC — not Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth: borough prez:

President Biden and Congress should send the influx of migrants to the National Mall in Washington, DC, and not the former Fort Wadsworth military base on Staten Island, Borough President Vito Fossella said Tuesday.

“Immigration is a federal responsibility … Staten Island didn’t cause this problem. Why is Staten Island being asked to solve the migrant crisis,” the former Republican congressman quipped.

Fossella is asking Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI/Brooklyn) and the New York congressional delegation to introduce legislation requiring migrants to be sheltered on the National Mall that runs from the US Capitol building to the Lincoln Monument before burdening the Big Apple, where 100,000 migrants have sought assistance and shelter over the past year.

As first reported by The Post last week — City Hall and officials from the Department of Homeland Security are considering leasing a portion of Fort Wadsworth’s 226 acres, now run by the Nationaal Park Service, to shelter the ongoing surge of migrants.

“Fort Wadsworth is a jewel, and this [shelter idea] reeks of misplaced priorities,” the borough president said.

He said the lenient border policy combined with New York’s generous shelter law has asylum seekers stampeding to the Big Apple. —>READ MORE HERE

Borough president calls for migrants to be housed in Washington, D.C., instead of Fort Wadsworth:

Local elected officials presented a united front this week against a proposed migrant shelter at Fort Wadsworth, and one said Tuesday he’d like to see migrants housed in the heart of the nation’s capital before any more make their way to Staten Island.

Borough President Vito Fossella held a one-man press conference Tuesday morning outside the historic site to call for migrant housing on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., before any more sites are brought to the five boroughs.

“We will be asking our congressional delegation from New York to introduce legislation to mandate and compel the federal government to put and build tents on the National Mall before any other federal property is used to accommodate migrants,” he said. “We think that crystalizes the issue as a federal one.”

Since April 2022, nearly 100,000 migrants have made their way to the five boroughs, costing an estimated $12 billion in the coming years.

Mayor Eric Adams has said throughout the crisis that the immigration problem is a federal issue that deserves a federal solution, and Fossella said Tuesday that to drive that point home, new arrivals should be housed on the National Mall instead of places like Fort Wadsworth.

The borough president held his Tuesday press conference alone, but every other Staten Island elected official joined him Monday in a letter to city, state and federal governments to speak out against the idea of housing migrants at Fort Wadsworth.

In the letter, the elected officials, led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), pointed out the site’s historic and current importance to Staten Island and the nation as part of the National Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area and the main staff base for the U.S. Coast Guard. —>READ MORE HERE

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