Today, the National Park Service (NPS) announced the renewal of the lease of Floyd Bennett Field where the Biden-Harris administration erected a so-called “temporary” migrant encampment, citing a state of emergency last August. House Committee on Natural Resources Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement in response:

"In a futile attempt to cover up for their disaster at our southern border, the Biden-Harris administration is willingly signing New Yorkers up for more chaos and crime in their community. What the White House once called ‘temporary’ has mutated into a multi-year debacle. The migrant encampment has been nothing but trouble and has ruined what was once one of New York City's most prized treasures for outdoor recreation. Desecrating our country's national park lands to cover up for Border Czar Kamala Harris' failed policies is an insult to New Yorkers and all Americans.”

Background

The Biden-Harris administration established a migrant encampment at Floyd Bennett Field, in the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York City (NYC) on September 14, 2023. Today, the NPS announced an extension of the original lease for an additional year.

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing late last year to hear directly from local officials, address their concerns and condemn the unprecedented action by the Biden administration to use national park land for a migrant encampment. 

The committee has also worked on legislative solutions like H.R. 5283, the Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023, which prohibits federal funding from being used to house illegal immigrants on any federal lands. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5283 on Nov. 29, 2023.

The committee has launched a thorough investigation into the FBF lease, which involves requests for document productions, briefings and interviews from several federal agencies, including NPS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Council on Environmental Quality and White House officials. On Aug. 9, 2024, Chairman Westerman issued a subpoena to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for documents related to the lease agreement. The lengthy and thorough investigation by the committee of the Biden-Harris decision to lease FBF as a migrant camp has directly pointed back to the involvement of the White House as key in the decision.

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