City officials plan to send some asylum seekers to a hotel in the suburbs despite strong opposition from local leaders and a judge’s order temporarily blocking the use of a different hotel.
Mayor Eric Adams caused a stir north of the city after he announced Friday that the city would send up to 300 adult men to two hotels located in Rockland County and neighboring Orange County for up to four months.
The Democrat’s plan comes as the city struggles to handle the arrival of up to 60,000 asylum seekers since last spring, many of whom were bused in by governors of other states.
The government promised to provide food and services to migrants. But local officials accused Adams of doing exactly what he complained other governors were doing to the city: busing asylum seekers without adequately alerting the municipalities where the migrants were headed.
“It was a sneak attack in the middle of the night,” Orangetown Supervisor Teresa Kenny said at a news conference Wednesday.
The confrontation comes as cities across the country are gearing up for a surge in the number of asylum seekers once restrictions put in place during the pandemic that allowed many migrants to be expelled expeditiously are lifted on Thursday.
Kenny said his community in Rockland County has obtained a temporary injunction preventing the Armoni Inn and Suites hotel from receiving asylum seekers while the lawsuit continues its legal course. That is in addition to emergency declarations in Rockland and Orange counties to prevent hotels and motels from hosting migrants.
Rockland County Administrator Ed Day said the county would file its own lawsuits and the hotel’s operating permit expired on April 30.
Armoni Inn did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Despite the setbacks, New York City officials plan to continue with at least part of the plan and send “a small number of asylum seekers” to Orange County on Wednesday, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement. a statement.
“We will let the hotel decide how it will proceed in Rockland County,” Levy said. He did not elaborate on the move, noting that “we need the federal government to step up, but until that happens, we need other elected officials across the state and across the country to do their part.”
Orange County officials have identified their local hotel as the Crossroads Hotel, in the town of Newburgh, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of the city.
Levy said Day, a Republican, has failed to show “humanitarianism and compassion.”
Day says the local opposition stems from the fact that the city unilaterally tried to carry out an ill-conceived plan that will strain local resources.
“The plan is short-sighted, is universally rejected locally, and will only put the lives of our residents at risk,” Day stated.
Camille Mackler, executive director of the Immigrant ARC coalition of legal service providers, said officials at all levels of government share the blame for a response she called chaotic and ineffective.
“We need a better coordinated response,” he stressed, “one that focuses on the humanity and dignity of all involved rather than continuing to use their lives as political pawns.”
The Adams government has already begun using hotels within the city to house some migrants, especially families with children. Plans to house others in various locations, such as a cruise terminal and a beach parking lot in the Bronx, have been scrapped.
2023-05-10 22:16:00
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