Gov. Phil Murphy says NJ can’t handle more migrants, either

By Craig McCarthy
September 1, 20234:47pm Updated

Fuggedaboutit!

Gov. Phil Murphy says New Jersey doesn’t have the resources to take on any of the migrants surging into the Big Apple — rebuffing a possible plan by the feds to use an airport in the state as a shelter.

“I don’t see any scenario where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly elsewhere in the state,” said the Garden State Democrat to News 12 on Thursday.

“You need scale, enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything that we can afford,” he said on the station’s “Ask Governor Murphy” segment.

“Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it,” the governor said, adding migrants have already come to NJ and they are “probably coming from New York or other locations.”

The comments from the governor, a longtime ally of President Biden and who had once voiced support to make New Jersey a sanctuary state, came in response to the White House considering sending migrants to the Atlantic City International Airport.



Governor Phil Murphy comments came as the feds said they were considering a migrant shelter near Atlantic James Messerschmidt for NY Post

The airport is one of 11 federally owned facilities that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told New York City Mayor Eric Adams could be a potential makeshift shelter for the city to move migrants.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, (R-NJ), railed against the notion, saying he would “fight [it] with every ounce of strength that we have.

“It is the wrong thing,” Van Drew said on ‘Fox and Friends’ Friday. “You know, when we said what was happening at the southern border was going to affect the entire United States of America, this is what happens.”



Gov. Murphy says he doesn’t see how the state could handle caring for more migrants.

Since the spring of 2022, more than 107,000 asylum seekers have come to New York City, forcing Big Apple officials to scramble to provide them with housing as required by its longstanding right-to-shelter law.

Nearly 60,000 asylum seekers were still in the city’s care as of Aug. 30.

The migrant crisis has proven controversial, even among Democrats, as pols fear backslash from suburban households.

In New York, it has driven a wedge between leaders in Albany and New York City, with Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul both unhappy with how the other is handling the crisis.



Tens of thousands of migrants have come to New York from the southern border since spring 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Hochul has said the Big Apple was too slow in reacting to the crisis, while Adams has said the governor is blatantly “wrong” for not forcing other areas of the state to share the burden.

Both agree, though, that the federal government hasn’t done enough.

Hochul went down to DC earlier this week, but her closed-door meeting with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients only led to the Biden administration’s renewed request for a paltry amount of more funding and a solicitation to private businesses to provide free services.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/01/we-can...nj-gov-murphy/