Global Courant 2023-05-09 06:13:05
Counties in New York state are vowing to fight New York Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to send migrants and asylum seekers north for temporary housing.
On Monday, Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus issued an Execute Order for hotels not to accept asylum seekers.
Neuhaus accused the mayor of keeping his promise to send only 60 adult male asylum seekers without notifying Orange County officials. He said the county could no longer rely on New York City officials’ representations.
FILE: New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks with relatives of fallen NYPD officers while attending the NYPD Memorial Day Ceremony where new names were added to the Memorial Wall in the headquarters lobby. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
“(T)here is no reason to believe that these migrants or asylum seekers will leave Orange County after New York City stops paying for the housing and all services currently received in New York City, or that many thousands more migrants or asylum seekers will not be transported to Orange County,” Neuhaus said.
The County Executive predicted that a wave of migrants to the county will overwhelm the city’s resources and as such there is “no legal basis to provide adequate services to these migrants or asylum seekers”.
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Neuhaus ordered that all “hotels, motels, and/or facilities that allow short-term rentals not accept said migrants and/or asylum seekers for housing in Orange County.”
At a news conference with U.S. Representative Michael Lawler and other officials, Ed Day, Rockland County executive director, said the county was “not equipped to help these individuals humanely, which we will eventually have to do.”
Day, a Republican, called Mayor Adams’ plan to bus up to 300 single adult male migrants to hotels in Rockland and neighboring Orange counties “like throwing people into the middle of the ocean who can’t swim and saying ‘go to shore.’ It can’t work.”
Adams, a Democrat, announced Friday the plan to voluntarily transport migrants to the two counties north of the city. He said the program would help the city deal with the more than 37,500 asylum seekers the city cares for.
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Adams announced the plan as cities across the US prepare for a surge in migrants seeking asylum when the pandemic-era policy, Title 42, that allowed the deportation of many migrants ends. Officials expect the end of immigration restrictions under Title 42 of a 1944 public health law to mean more migrants try to cross the southern border.
FILE: Immigrants keep warm by a bonfire at dawn after spending the night along the US-Mexico border fence on December 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Adams said the migrants sent from New York City to Rockland and Orange counties will receive meals, counseling and other services for stays of up to four months in the hotels.
Adams has complained for months that the number of migrants arriving in New York is beyond the city’s capacity and has criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republican elected officials for transporting migrants to New York.
The Adams administration has used hotels in the city to house some migrants, mostly families with children. Plans to house others in locations such as a cruise ship terminal and beach parking lot in the Bronx have been scrapped. Texas and other border states have experienced historic numbers of illegal border crossings since the crisis began in the earliest days of President Biden’s term.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues and much more.
