The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in New York City.
Over the past weekend, a large migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn has been receiving clothing, toys, books, and blankets thanks to donation drives organized by dozens of volunteers and nearby churches.
A group of about fifteen volunteers arranged tables and blankets across the street on Saturday, unloading over one hundred bags brimming with supplies to distribute to needy refugees.
Ten additional Catholic parishes including the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Flatlands have collected emergency clothes as part of their efforts to assist migrants housed at the shelter.
Currently accommodating over 1,700 immigrant parents and kids, the shelter is comprised of four enormous tents situated on a deserted federal airfield.
The show of solidarity comes following locals’ concerns in adjacent Marine Park, where migrants have been begging for assistance. People who live close to the Kings Plaza Mall, where city buses drop off and pick up migrants, reported seeing immigrant families going door to door on residential streets and requesting food, clothing, and cash.
“The situation is when you have 15 families show up at the doorstep and they have shorts on and nothing else in this type of weather, it calls for help,” said Father Dwayne Davis, the pastor at St. Thomas, who claims his parish provided clothing for 150 families this week.
Some posters in this Brooklyn neighborhood, where Donald Trump won in both 2016 and 2020, even began to invoke the conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement,” which is propagated by the far-right and holds that non-white immigrants are being brought in to replace white votes.
