Migrants in NYC were temporarily housed in a local school during a storm. The school has not shut down
Migrants run in the rain towards the tents at migrant housing location at Floyd Bennett Field, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in New York. Social media posts falsely claimed this week that migrants at the shelter will now be housed at a New York City School, which has been shut down. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
CLAIM: A New York City high school was shut down to house migrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. In anticipation of a potentially damaging storm, nearly 2,000 migrants being housed in tents at an outdoor Brooklyn shelter were moved temporarily to a nearby high school in the borough’s Midwood neighborhood on Tuesday night. All of the migrants had left the school by early the next morning. Classes were held remotely on Wednesday and resumed in person on Thursday.
THE FACTS: News that migrants living in a temporary shelter at Floyd Bennett Field, a former airport, would wait out the storm at James Madison High School led some on social media to falsely claim that the move would be long term.
“(Heart)BREAKING: New York has shut down a highschool so that it can become a shelter for illegal aliens,” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter, that had received approximately 7,100 likes and more than 2,500 shares as of Friday.
But the move was temporary, the migrants were at James Madison High School for less than 12 hours.
“To be clear, this relocation is a proactive measure being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals working and living at the center,” Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said in a statement on Tuesday, referencing the Floyd Bennett Field shelter. “The relocation will continue until any weather conditions that may arise have stabilized and the facility is once again fit for living.”
Aries Dela Cruz, a spokesperson for the New York City Office of Emergency Management, told The Associated Press that migrants began loading onto buses at Floyd Bennett Field at about 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday evening and arrived at the school starting about 5:30 p.m. The last buses arrived about 8 p.m. Some families arrived on their own after hearing about the relocation.
The agency wrote on X that the migrants had all returned to Floyd Bennett Field by 4:27 a.m. on Wednesday, after winds had subsided.
Fabien Levy, another Adams spokesperson, wrote on X Wednesday that “as the rain died down early this AM, we were able to move all the migrants out of James Madison High School by 4:15 this morning, and all headed back to Floyd Bennett Field.”
James Madison High School wrote in a Facebook post late Tuesday that all classes would be remote the next day. On Wednesday afternoon, another post announced that “regular in-person instruction” would resume on Thursday.
The decision to house migrants at James Madison High School led to widespread anger, including a protest outside the school and a bomb threat directed at the institution. But Adams stressed at a press conference on Wednesday that using schools in emergency situations is nothing new.
“When you have these emergencies you utilize all of your assets and our school buildings are part of our assets,” he said. “They’re the focal points of our community. And so whenever someone states that, why are you using a school building? This is what we’ve always done.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
