Parents Refusing to Drop Children Off at School After Discovering Plan to House Adult Migrants There

By Richard Moorhead May 18, 2023 at 10:30am

A plan to house adult illegal immigrants in a Brooklyn school gym has been shelved after backlash from concerned parents.

New York City officials planned on housing asylum seekers at P.S. 188 in Coney Island, with 75 of the migrants set to move into a school gym as of Monday, according to CBS News.

Parents and community members in the heavily Democratic area were soon up in arms, with New York City Councilman Ari Kagan stating that the school community wanted the adult migrants out, before they ever arrived.

The migrant housing plan would’ve included mobile showers for those in residence, according to Kagan.

Principal & parents told me they want to come back to normalcy & to see school gym being returned to children of Coney Island. Transforming this school gym into processing center with revolving door for new migrants is not an acceptable solution. 2/2

— Council Member Ari Kagan (@CMAriKagan47) May 15, 2023

Another city councilman indicated that the city was planning on ferrying asylum seekers in and out of the school before staging them in more permanent housing.

As per NYCEM: City working to identify longer term shelter/housing for asylees. PS 188 in Coney being used for short-term overflow for current influx. Plan is to move folks in/out of 188 quickly once they arrive & onto longer term shelter elsewhere. Will share more info as I get.

— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) May 15, 2023

Should schools be used to house migrants?

Mona Davids of the New York City School Safety Coalition criticized the plan as dangerous to those the school is intended for — students.

“We are talking about unvetted, foreign nationals, migrants, coming from all over the world.”

“We don’t know anything about them. We don’t know their background, we don’t know what they’re capable of.”

Another parent quoted by CBS News expressed fears that “pedophiles” could infiltrate the school grounds.

“There could be people trying to kidnap our kids. They could have weapons, they could have drugs, they could have anything.”

One angry parent even went so far as to refuse to bring their children back to the campus with the migrant plan in place.

“I’m taking them home,” said the unnamed parent upon learning about the plan.

City officials were ever eyeing three other schools — P.S 172, P.S 189, and Middle School 577 — for housing migrants, until public opposition seems to have halted the idea.

Kagan later indicated that the city was backing off of the plan to house migrants in the school — while leaving the possibility open.

“It’s not going to happen today. But it’s not 100 percent off the table,” the councilman told the New York Post on Monday.

New York City — which advertises itself as a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens — has been inundated with asylum seekers throughout President Joe Biden’s tenure.

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