some of the 60 000 migrants who recently arrived on the doorstep of New York City now might call Atlantic City Home Atlantic City International Airport is one of 11 facilities owned by the federal government that are being considered as a location to house the Asylum Seekers the move a response to New York City's calls for help in housing the group that at one point numbered 107 000 large they arrived in the city after Texas governor Greg Abbott flew the captured migrants North an attempt to spread the burden of the Southern border crisis but as Ted Goldberg reports the relocation proposal is drawing the ire of New Jersey Democrats and Republicans alike the Biden administration's suggestion to relocate migrants to Atlantic City's airport isn't flying with local leaders seems like somebody in D.C looked at where there was federally owned property where this could happen and so all the federal property out the Atlantic City International Airport and set it up let this let's throw it out on the list Senator Vincent Palestina and a bipartisan a group of elected officials protested the possible move in Atlantic City today the AC airport is actually in Egg Harbor Township but people warned that moving Asylum Seekers from New York City to Atlanta County could create chaos it's 10 miles away from the great city of Atlantic City and that poises a threat in my experience as mayor Atlantic City has been The Perennial Dumping Ground people continuously dump their less fortunate on the great city of Atlantic City I think Harbor Township is a community with a population of approximately 50 000 people and we could get up to sixty thousand illegal individuals where are the kids going to be educated we don't have the school room we don't have the roads we don't have an infrastructure we don't have a Social Services program that can handle this all of us have compassion all of us our wallets are almost empty so do something about it where do we find the money where does it come from do we go back to the taxpayers and say you know forget about that tax break that we're giving you one of the big questions is who pays to care for some or all of the sixty thousand people unask the governor yesterday Governor Phil Murphy suggested that New Jersey would need some help from the federal government you need scale enormous amount of federal support resources that go beyond anything that we can afford putting everything else aside I just don't see it and I I would suspect that that will continue to be the case I'm not so sure that they're getting enough funding and I'm not so sure that the state was actually prepared to receive as many migrants as they are receiving immigration attorney Ingrid echeveria says leaders have a point and that municipalities like Egg Harbor could take a hit if they don't get financial assistance how does this impact the homeowners as far as their taxes right property taxes so I think that it has a dominant domino effect Congressman Jeff Van Drew also warned that allowing migrants into the Atlantic City Airport would pose a threat to National Security we have drug cartels coming across the border and we can't get them all we have people on the terror watch list we can't get them all and in those 60 000 people that they talk about I guarantee you I will put my name upon it that there will be individuals who are criminals our first line of defense for the United States of America sits right here with 177th airborne and the f-16s how could you possibly think about bringing people white into the most sensitive area that we have for our defense there's no way this could happen on a federal base that does top secret work that is designed to protect the East Coast immigration Advocates haven't accepted this plan with open arms arguing that places like the airport are far from job opportunities and they may not be suitable to host people is this airport actually equipped or do they have showers do they have you know what the children will need where are they going to go I don't know and I'm not positive anyone knows but we are not the solution to a problem we did not create a thorny issue that seems to have United leaders around Atlantic City in Atlantic County I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music]