White House More Involved in Housing NYC Migrants Than Previously Known: Congressional Investigation

White House officials were more involved in a disastrous plan to house thousands of migrants at an encampment located on federal land in New York City than was previously known, congressional investigators revealed on Thursday.

According to the House Natural Resources Committee leaders, it was the White House that spearheaded the administration's decision last year to hand large portions of the Gateway National Recreation Area's Floyd Bennett Field to local officials for the purpose of migrant housing. Since that decision, however, the White House has publicly, and in communications with the committee, skirted responsibility.

In a letter sent to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and six senior White House officials on Thursday, GOP leaders on the House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chairman Bruce Westerman (R., Ark.), requested hundreds of documents related to issue. The letter outlines the events leading up to the administration's decision, finalized in September 2023, and cites evidence revealing the White House's involvement.

According to the letter, Tom Perez, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, negotiated directly with New York City and New York State officials on where to lease land for a housing encampment. Interviews of administration officials conducted by the committee, furthermore, revealed the White House oversaw much of the work conducted by federal agencies on the issue.

The Thursday effort—which was signed by 23 House Natural Resources Committee Republicans—represents the largest escalation in their ongoing probe into the issue. And it comes as federal officials will soon be forced to decide on whether to renew the lease allowing New York City officials to house migrants in the park. The lease is widely expected to be renewed in the coming days.

After the Biden-Harris administration last year leased the National Park Service property, located in Brooklyn, to the city, temporary housing was quickly constructed. Weeks later, the first batch of migrants was placed at the facility, where many migrants remain. Since then, the camp's deplorable conditions have been widely documented, and crime has run rampant throughout the facility.

The Natural Resources Committee immediately launched a probe into the action after the lease was announced and has particularly sought to determine the extent to which senior White House officials were personally involved in the decision to lease the property for migrant housing. The White House has repeatedly suggested federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security and Interior Department, are responsible for the action.

"Over the past year, the Committee has conducted a lengthy investigation on [the] administration's decision to lease [Floyd Bennett Field] as a migrant camp, a decision spanning multiple federal agencies, all of which point directly back to the involvement of the White House as key in the decision," the Republicans wrote in their letter, which was first obtained by the Free Beacon.

"Despite the Biden-Harris White House's clear involvement, responses received by the Committee from the White House entirely eschew responsibility and attempt to redirect responsibility for the administration's actions to executive agencies … as the key players in establishing the [Floyd Bennett Field] migrant camp," they continued. "Yet, information gathered points back at the White House."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in August 2023 that it was the "administration, across several departments and agencies," that "identified a number of federal sites across New York State for housing." Those comments appear to fly in the face of evidence gathered by the committee.

According to that evidence, Perez traveled to New York in August 2023 to meet with city officials and discuss how the federal government could assist with the surge of migrants pouring into the region. Perez's meetings included one with New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) and Adams chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack.

Perez also met with New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.), who issued a statement confirming the meeting. "For months, I've been in close communication with the White House about the asylum seeker crisis," she said.

The lawmakers revealed in their letter that the committee in June conducted an interview with Homeland Security official Rebecca Sternhell in which she testified that the White House was involved in determining which sites could be used for an encampment in New York. The committee also received an internal Homeland Security staff email, dated August 21, 2023, stating that questions about Floyd Bennett Field should be directed to the White House.

The Department of the Interior took action to lease the land in Floyd Bennett Field to the city on on September 15, 2023, less than a month after Perez's visit and the internal communications referring back to the White House. And one week following that decision, Perez again traveled to New York to meet with Hochul, according to a copy of the governor's daily schedule.

The New York Post in June reported that the camp has become a "hotbed of unrest," with a string of assaults and even a gun bust occurring on the property since the land was leased. The camp, which is located in a flood zone, was abruptly evacuated in January due to an impending storm. Migrants were shipped to a local school, forcing nearby school children to miss classes, the Associated Press reported.

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.

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