Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) forcing high school students into virtual classes to accommodate border crossers and illegal aliens “is something from Babylon Bee,” the fake news satire website.
As Breitbart News reported, late on Tuesday, Adams announced that nearly 2,000 border crossers and illegal aliens would be moved into the gym at James Madison High School in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Students and faculty were then told they would be going virtual on Wednesday to accommodate the migrants staying in the school’s gym.
In an interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Daily, Blackburn said when she first heard about Adams throwing students out of their school to help border crossers and illegal aliens, she thought it was fake news.
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Breitbart · Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – January 10, 2024“You know, I heard this story and I thought, ‘This is something from Babylon Bee. Certainly, a school system, a local government would not shut down a school, a high school, and send the kids home — that means they terminated their sports activities and other things — and place them on remote learning and turn the school over for use for shelter,'” Blackburn said.
“We don’t know how long the people will be there, we don’t know how long it will be used as a shelter,” Blackburn said. “We don’t know how long it takes to put the school back in school order to move it back into a classroom setting from a shelter setting.”
“I thought, ‘This cannot be possible,’ but yet we’re learning that indeed it is,” she continued.
Migrants evacuated from Floyd Bennett Field arrive at James Madison High School on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City during a storm on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
School buses evacuate migrants from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York City during a storm on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
While parents and elected officials protested outside the high school on Wednesday, the New York Times portrayed any objections to turning schools into migrant camps as “hate” fueled by conservatives.
The city’s school principals’ union joined outraged parents in blasting Adams for using the high school to shelter migrants and thus forcing students out of in-person learning.
The Times reported:
In a letter to school leaders, the city’s principals’ union wrote that “while we recognize the safety concerns brought on by the storm,” schools “should never be used to temporarily house non-student populations.” [Emphasis added]
“We urged the city to consider more viable alternatives,” union officials said, adding that some migrant students from Floyd Bennett Field would be likely to need “additional support in the coming days as they navigate through this unsettling experience.” [Emphasis added]
Blackburn said, “What we want is for our children to be in in-person school … not only for their learning but for their socialization … I am one of those who am hopeful that this is not going to be a trend.”
James Madison High School will resume in-person classes on Thursday, Jan. 11.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
