(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Vito Fossella
(Staten Island, NY) – Borough President Vito J. Fossella will hold a press conference at the entrance to Fort Wadsworth on Tuesday, August 15 at 11 a.m. to protest the potential conversion of the Fort Wadsworth site into a migrant shelter.
This press conference comes on the heels of a recent assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the city, indicating Fort Wadsworth as a potential site to locate homeless migrants. Fossella Will call upon the federal government to redirect “asylum seekers” to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. so that the White House and Congress can focus their attention on this national problem, according to the Borough President’s Office.
The former military base is a historic staple of Staten Island as one of the country’s oldest military installations. It continues to be enjoyed by the community as a National Park and historic site and is used by the US Army Reserves and Coast Guard for training and housing.
Additionally, the Borough President will provide statistics showing that for the cost of accommodating thousands of migrants, estimated to be $12 billion in the next three years, the federal government could hire hundreds of new immigration hearing officers to speed up the process of their hearings.
