NYC’s Floyd Bennett Field migrant housing plan is focus of suit aiming to block using the federal land in Brooklyn

Dozens of lawmakers, local leaders and residents are suing to block New York City’s use of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to house homeless foreign migrants.

The suit, filed Tuesday against the state and city in Staten Island at State Supreme Court, argues that the law prohibits the development of the field, which is federal property.

The defendants are using “protected Federal Park / Recreational Lands including Floyd Bennett Field, Fort Wadsworth, Fort Tilden (Gateway National Recreation Area) in contravention of state, federal and local laws,” the suit says.

The challengers include Republicans and conservative Democrats, largely from Staten Island and Brooklyn.

On Friday, the city announced the leasing of the field, after weeks of negotiations with the Biden administration. The rent is about $21 million a year, plus required capital improvements. Mayor Eric Adams’ office said the state would foot the bill.

The site is expected to house more than 2,000 migrants. It will be yet another of the over 200 spots the city has opened since April 2022 to shelter the influx, which as of last week topped 113,000. About half are living in shelters or hotels funded by the city.

The suit criticizes the state’s and city’s “resort to means that are plainly outside the law to deal with the problem that has been put upon them, rather than acting to have the Federal Government take on responsibility (financial and logistical) for the problem of an unsecure boarder.”

Thousands of migrants, mostly from Latin America, continue to arrive weekly to the city, which is under a decades-old and unique-in-the-nation mandate to provide a bed to anyone in need. That obligation, coupled with New York’s status as a “sanctuary city” that doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcers, has made the city a prime destination for migrants crossing into the United States from other countries.