NYC Migrants To NJ? Murphy Says Garden State Not 'The Wild West'

NEW JERSEY — After a report that one of New Jersey's airports could house asylum-seeking migrants from New York City, Gov. Phil Murphy has weighed in on the possibility.

Atlantic City International Airport is on a list of 11 federally-owned sites that Biden administration officials suggested to New York City's mayor Eric Adams, as places to house some of the 60,000 recently-arrived migrants, Bloomberg reported.

Murphy said New Jersey's track record for taking care of vulnerable immigrant communities "speaks for itself," but added he does not "see any scenario" where the state could take in asylum-seekers, whether it be in Atlantic City or anywhere else in the state.

"We have already seen folks in New Jersey that are probably coming from New York or other locations," Murphy said Thursday evening on News12's "Ask Gov. Murphy" segment, adding that he has not heard directly from federal officials on the matter.

"We would need scale, an enormous amount of federal support, and resources," Murphy continued. "Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it and I suspect that continue to be the case."

NYC officials have been asking the state for a “decompression” strategy, and looking for other locations within the Empire State to house new arrivals, as The City reported.

Adams, who says the five boroughs have “run out of room” for incoming people, has publicly criticized President Joe Biden's laissez-faire attitude in his city when it comes to the cost and logistics of caring for the people who arrive on America's shores.

Most of the other suggested sites are also out of the city, Bloomberg reported, including an airport in remote St. Lawrence County, near New York’s border with Canada. The airport in Atlantic City appears to be the only New Jersey location on the list, per Bloomberg.

Murphy said there are three important components to comprehensive immigration reform, which includes "to responsibly and humanely secure our borders once and for all" and give a path to some status for the 15 million or more people already in the U.S.

"We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, but that doesn’t mean it can be the wild west," he said.