NYC Opens Tent Shelter at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center for 1,000 Illegal Immigrants

The ICL Milestone building at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center campus in the Queens borough of New York on Jan. 4, 2013. Frank Franklin/AP Photo

New York City has opened a tent shelter on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village to house up to 1,000 illegal immigrants as the city grapples with the influx of people.

The shelter site, which opened on Aug. 15, will accommodate around 1,000 male immigrants in two separate tents. Local officials said they expected to receive 100 immigrants on the opening day, the New York Post reported.

“I think if you’ve been paying attention to the number of people coming in, 2,000, 2,500 a week… This place will be full very, very quick,” Zach Iscol, NYC’s Emergency Management commissioner, told reporters.

The site includes a main sleeping tent that can hold up to 850 male illegal immigrants and a smaller tent to house 150 men. The shelter is also equipped with dining and restroom amenities.

This came just three weeks after Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that his administration would set up a new humanitarian emergency response and relief center at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.

Mr. Adams said that New York City is currently sheltering more than 52,600 people and “continues to receive thousands of asylum seekers each week.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement on Aug. 12 that a new shelter site, which will be fully funded by the state, will soon become operational on Randall’s Island.

“The State has already loaned New York City sites at the former Lincoln Correctional Facility in Manhattan and at a state-owned building at JFK Airport in Queens, both of which opened in June and house more than 1,000 asylum seekers every day,” she stated.

New York City has been a popular destination for illegal immigrants in recent years, in part, because the city deems itself a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, meaning city officials will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities that might arrest or deport illegal immigrants.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has deliberately directed buses to sanctuary jurisdictions like New York City and said the strategy has exposed the hypocrisy of sanctuary jurisdictions that balk at the prospect of having to actually take in illegal immigrants.

The Adams administration has looked for new shelter locations over the past year, including renting out hotels, opening up a cruise ship terminal, and a former police academy building. But as more people have arrived, the Adams administration has also tried to slow the influx of new arrivals and send the people already in the shelter system away.

The mayor announced last week that some adult asylum seekers without children in the city’s shelter system would be given 60 days notice to find other accommodations in order to make room for families with children.

Dr. Ted Long, senior vice president of the city’s public hospital system, which oversees the migrant shelters, said that about 100 migrants have been given notice so far.

Ryan Morgan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.