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NEW ALBANY – New York City officers wish to ease force on overcrowded homeless shelters through housing migrants in a federal jail that after held mobsters, terrorists and Wall Street swindlers sooner than being close down after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide.
The proposal, advised in an Aug. 9 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s management, got here as New York struggles to care for the estimated 100,000 migrants who’ve arrived in the town since ultimate yr after crossing the southern U.S. border.
The town is legally obligated to seek out refuge for somebody wanting it. With homeless shelters complete, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has taken over lodges, put cots in leisure facilities and college gyms and created transient housing in massive tents.
The letter, written through a senior recommend for the town’s regulation division, identifies a number of different websites in which migrants may just probably be housed, together with the defunct Metropolitan Correctional Center, which closed in 2021.
That shutdown got here after the detention heart, whose prisoners have incorporated Mafia don John Gotti, friends of Osama bin Laden and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, got here beneath new scrutiny on account of squalid stipulations and safety lapses uncovered following Epstein’s dying.
Lawyers had lengthy complained that the jail used to be filthy, infested with insects and rodents, and plagued through water and sewage leaks so dangerous that they had ended in structural problems.
The letter did not shed light on whether or not the town had in truth approached the federal Bureau of Prisons about gaining access to the jail as residential housing for migrants. As asylum seekers, the migrants aren’t prisoners and are most commonly in the U.S. legally whilst their asylum programs are pending, leaving them in most cases unfastened to trip.
In a remark, the federal Bureau of Prisons mentioned “While we decline to comment concerning governmental correspondence, we can provide; MCC New York is closed, at least temporarily, and long-term plans for MCC New York have not been finalized.”
At least one advocacy group assailed the idea of housing migrants at the jail.
“Mayor Adams likes to say that all options are on the table when it comes to housing asylum seekers, but certain places should most definitely be off the table,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “The Metropolitan Correctional Center was a notoriously decrepit jail, and is not a suitable place to support people trying to build a new life in a new country.”
The influx of migrants to the city has created some tension between the Hochul and Adams administrations. Lawyers for the two Democrats have sparred in court filings over how best to confront an issue that carries financial, political and humanitarian implications.
In a letter this week, an attorney representing Hochul sought to reject allegations that the state had not responded to the migrant influx in a substantial way, detailing steps the governor has taken while accusing the city of failing to accept state offers of assistance.
“The City has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the State, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the State before taking certain actions,” the letter mentioned.
Hochul’s legal professional additionally famous the state has put aside $1.5 billion for the town to help migrants and has complex the town $250 million for the hassle however mentioned the town has best submitted compensation paperwork for simply $138 million.
Avi Small, a spokesman for Hochul, mentioned in a remark Thursday that “Governor Hochul is thankful to Mayor Adams and his crew for his or her paintings to deal with this ongoing humanitarian disaster. Governor Hochul has deployed remarkable assets to make stronger the City’s efforts and can proceed operating intently with them to supply help and make stronger.”
The city, in its own filing, has suggested Hochul use executive orders or litigation to secure housing for migrants in upstate New York or to consider trying to get neighboring states to accept migrants.
Lawyers for the city are also requesting to use state-owned properties such as the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center or State University of New York dormitories to house new arrivals, in addition to requesting the federal government allow them to use federal sites such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail and Fort Dix.
Adams’ administrative center didn’t straight away go back an emailed request for remark Thursday.
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