FLATLANDS — After Venezuelan migrant Marlimar Gomez bundled up her 4-year-old daughter, two older children, and herself against the frigid southeastern Brooklyn cold, they set out from the tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field for the walk — more than 4 miles — to the nearest neighborhood, where she hoped to find food, warmer clothes, and, perhaps, toys for the children.

On Wednesday, Jan. 3, that long walk ended successfully, when Gomez found St. Thomas Aquinas Church, a parish with a pastor and staff willing to help her anyway they could. Her children walked out of the church with toys in their hands and smiles on their faces.

“I don’t have things. This is a great blessing,” Gomez said in Spanish.

Migrants like Gomez made arduous treks from troubled countries in Central and South America in search of better lives in New York, only to find difficult living conditions at Floyd Bennett, a remote former airfield on the windswept shores of Jamaica Bay. Concerns over privacy, disease, and food quality have driven many to start searching elsewhere for help. 

In response to migrants ringing the doorbell at the church, Brooklyn Deanery B11 — a group of 12 southern Brooklyn Catholic churches — created an emergency fund right before Christmas to meet some of the needs that the migrants didn’t find elsewhere. 

Father Dwayne Davis, the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the dean of Deanery 11, is spearheading the distribution of the supplies at his parish.

“We had a [migrant’s] son who had on shorts in the winter. Another family showed up and was just so happy that we had some underwear for her daughter. It’s just some of the basic necessities,” Father Davis said.

Gomez is far from alone in her struggles — roughly 2,000 asylum-seekers are bundled together in dormitory-like conditions at the Floyd Bennett shelter. It opened in November and has been the target of ire from the nearby Marine Park community as well as the migrants themselves, many of whom fled to other locations in the city shortly after arriving.

The airfield, leased by New York City from the National Park Service, is now the site of four massive white tents erected to temporarily house some of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have streamed into the city. Last month, heavy winds and rain buffeted the tents, leaving families terrified they would collapse, The City reported. The shelter — housing close to 2,000 migrants—  was also evacuated on Jan. 9 due to potentially torrential rains and 70 mph winds that were expected. 

The parishes of Deanery 11 are all collecting supplies for the emergency fund to assist the migrants. Given its proximity to Floyd Bennett, St. Thomas Aquinas is the distribution site. The church sits along the B41 bus line, the main route migrants take north if they do not walk. 

Every Thursday, it welcomes migrants to the parking lot outside the church to give them food. At a distribution session on Dec. 28, they served more than 250 families. 

On Jan. 3, Lori Mangan, a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas, hauled a trash bag full of clothes over her shoulder to donate before the noon Mass. The bag was filled with clothes her daughter left behind when she recently moved out. 

“You help the needy. You help those less fortunate than yourself,” Mangan explained. “That is part of the Catholic faith.”

However, not everyone in Marine Park welcomes the migrants with open arms. St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner Maureen McGroarty believes their presence is dangerous to the older population, such as herself, that resides near Floyd Bennett Field. 

McGroarty, like other Marine Park locals, has had migrants coming to her home looking for cash, food, and clothes. Now, she won’t come to the door.

“I’m by myself. I don’t feel safe opening the door to anybody,” she said. “There’s nothing good about this. We don’t know who these people are.”

According to officials, more than 150,000 migrants have arrived in the city since spring of 2022, most of them bused in from Texas and other border states.  

The local backlash against asylum-seekers reflects a nationwide issue with immigration policies.

More than 225,000 migrants crossed the southern border during the first 27 days of December, according to preliminary Department of Homeland Security statistics — a record monthly high. That total only includes the number of migrants taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, not the legal entry points, where around 50,000 migrants are being processed each month, CBS News reports.

Those numbers are playing a major role in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. NPR reported that 47% of American voters have said immigration is a major concern.

But to Father Davis, politics and personal opinions should be put aside on this issue. Catholics, he stressed, have a responsibility to help those in need, which is what Deanery 11 is doing. 

For that, he has been met with strong support. When he asked for baby strollers, for example, an anonymous donor brought truckloads.

“Different people have different beliefs on this and have some strong opinions. But despite what we believe, they’re here and they’re human,” the pastor said. 

“So we as Christians are called to give a Christian response to that because they’re coming with nothing,” Father Davis added.