New York City to open huge shelter for asylum seekers at Brooklyn cruise terminal

New York City will temporarily house about 1,000 asylum seekers at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Saturday, the latest response to the surge of migrants in the city since last spring.

“Our city is at its breaking point,” Adams said in a statement.

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The huge terminal, on the waterfront in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, will provide shelter, food, medical care, and other services for single men until cruise season resumes in the spring.

Almost 28,000 migrants are in the city now, among a total of 41,000 since last year amid a record number of crossings from Mexico to the US. Many of the migrants are originally from countries including Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

Adams has been vocal about the strain on city services and its budget. Last weekend, he visited the border in Texas, denouncing leaders of that state and others who have bused migrants north to New York and other cities.

The city’s Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless denounced Adams’s plan in a joint statement, saying the site is “in a high-risk flood zone,” and that migrants should be moved to permanent housing. “Continuing to move asylum seekers around the boroughs like chess pieces is callous and indicative of City Hall’s failure to competently manage this crisis,” the groups said.

Migrants have been housed in dozens of sites around the city.

Read more: EXPLAINER: Why are migrants crossing the US-Mexico border in record numbers?