New Jersey officials oppose proposal to send migrants to Atlantic City airport

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) -- Elected officials in New Jersey voiced their opposition on Friday morning about a plan to house thousands of migrants in Atlantic County.

Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township is one of 11 federally owned facilities that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified in a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The proposal includes sending 60,000 migrants to the airport in Egg Harbor Township.

"We are not the solution to a problem that we did not create," said Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson.

Officials said the state does not have the resources to handle an influx of migrants.

"Egg Harbor Township does not have the capacity to take care of this," said Mayor Laura Pfrommer.

"I want everyone up here to keep that same energy and stand and support Atlantic City as people continuously dump their less fortunate on the great city of Atlantic City," said Mayor Marty Small.

New York has taken in more than 100,000 asylum seekers in the past year, which Adams says has cost the city nearly $4 billion.

The city is currently housing about 60,000 migrants.

"We do know they are talking about 60,000. They could split it up among numerous communities or they could send it to one community. So we have to think the worst because sometimes it happens," said U.S. Congressman Jeff Van Drew.

Democrats have blasted Texas Governor Greg Abbott for transporting migrants caught at the Mexican border to Democratic cities.

Abbott and other Republicans use the tactic to make the border problem a nationwide problem.

While appearing sympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers, some elected officials in Atlantic County still said they don't feel the region can house them.

"They're escaping tyranny. We should understand that this country is based on that. This country escaped tyranny, but it has to be a legal immigration process," said Egg Harbor Township Committeeman Joe O'Donoghue.

There's no timeline at this point of when the federal government would begin relocating migrants from New York to Atlantic City.

Action News has reached out to the White House for comment but we have not heard back.