NYC judge blocks Mayor Adams’ admin from sheltering migrants at old SI school

A Staten Island judge ordered Friday that Mayor Adams’ administration cannot use an old private school in the borough as a migrant shelter for now — a ruling that came down just as city workers started moving new arrivals into the location.

The decision by Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi to block the city from housing migrants at the St. John’s Villa Academy came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of local Republican politicians, including Borough President Vito Fosella, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Councilman Joe Borelli.

Their suit claimed the Adams administration would violate existing zoning restrictions, create “an unreasonable private nuisance” and “unduly burden” Staten Island by housing migrants at the school, which has been closed since 2018.

In his three-page ruling, Ozzi sided with the Republicans, writing that they are “likely to succeed on the merits of the case.” Thereby, the judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the city from housing any migrants at the site at least until Sept. 6, when he scheduled a hearing for the parties to meet in court.

Just hours before Ozzi’s ruling, city personnel had moved a first group of asylum seekers into St. John’s. Video posted on social media by a PIX11 reporter showed city workers moving that group back out from the school following Ozzi’s ruling.

The footage also showed a group of anti-migrant protesters gathered outside the school cheering as the asylum seekers were moved out. Some of the protesters could be seen in the footage shouting “go home” at the newly-arrived migrants.

Spokespeople for Adams’ office did not immediately return requests for comment after Ozzi’s ruling.

Ozzi’s order was quickly hailed by Republican politicians on Staten Island.

“This is only the beginning of all legal remedies that I and our local elected leaders are prepared to take as we vigorously pursue every angle possible to stop this injustice to our taxpaying constituents who cannot and should not bear the burden of President Biden, Governor Hochul’s, and Mayor Adams’ failures,” Malliotakis wrote on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

The Staten Island legal development comes as the Adams administration scrambles to find room to house the tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants who have arrived in New York City since last spring.

According to the latest data, there are more than 59,000 migrants in city shelters, with hundreds more arriving every week. Amid the influx, Adams’ administration has continued to open emergency shelters in unconventional spaces like shuttered schools.