ICE and Israeli Military Supplier Receives Millions in Subsidies from NYC
City-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard provides Crye Precision more than $2 million in rent and construction incentives.
Story by Arvind Dilawar.
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New York City offers a contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Israeli Defense Forces millions of dollars in rent and construction subsidies, according to leases obtained by Drop Site through a Freedom of Information Law request.
The company, Crye Precision, designs and manufactures “combat proven” tactical gear and clothing for military applications and has been a tenant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard since 2002, according to the website of the city-owned complex.
Incentives offered by the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Crye Precision contrast with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policy positions. Earlier this month, Mamdani issued an executive order reaffirming the city’s “sanctuary” status and restricting local agencies from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement. The mayor also campaigned extensively against the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The Mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Publicly available federal contracts indicate that Crye Precision received its latest contract from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and ICE, on January 19. The $40,000 contract for cold weather apparel for the Border Patrol’s Maine sector coincided with ICE’s “surge” in the state, which resulted in the warrantless arrests of more than 200 people, according to the office of Gov. Janet Mills (D).
Drop Site previously reported that Crye Precision has produced camouflage gear for the Israeli Defense Forces. According to a whistleblower familiar with its operations, the company has continued to supply the Israeli military since the start of the Gaza genocide.
Crye Precision did not respond to requests for comment.
The company currently holds three leases for spaces in the Brooklyn Navy Yard complex that were signed in 2012, 2019, and 2022. The leases range in size from 8,000 to 85,000 square feet, in terms of five to 20 years, with options to renew.
The Navy Yard advertises a number of leasing incentives on its website. Crye Precision’s 2012 lease waives the first year of rent, saving the company at least $340,000. Rent for the remaining 19 years of the lease’s initial term is reduced by more than $1 million, based on a federal tax credit to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The complex also offers to perform $1 million worth of construction “at tenant’s direction.” The 2019 lease waives the first quarter of rent, which comes to at least $159,444.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard declined to comment. The office of City Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the Navy Yard, did not respond to requests for comment.
In response to Crye Precision’s military and DHS contracts, local community members organizing under the banner of Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard have been pushing the complex to evict the company, as well as Easy Aerial, another military contractor that provides drones to the Israeli military and DHS. Federal contracts indicate that both Easy Aerial and Crye Precision have additional facilities in New Jersey.
“It’s shameful that the City of New York is providing them with subsidies while in that very rented space, they produce tactical equipment for ICE and a genocidal army,” said a DBNY spokesperson, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. “Instead of that subsidized space being used for the benefit of the community, it is being used by a war profiteer.”
Earlier this month, the Navy Yard’s board met some of the activists’ demands and declined to renew the lease of Easy Aerial. According to a statement provided to Hyperallergic, the facility “notified Easy Aerial at the beginning of the year that it would not renew its lease agreement for business reasons related to tenant conduct on campus.”
Arvind Dilawar is an independent journalist. His articles, essays and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Daily Beast and elsewhere. Find him online at: adilawar.com