When New York Mayor Eric Adams tried to reduce the number of asylum applicants by moving them to neighboring Orange County, a judge from the state's highest court issued a temporary restraining order to prevent this.
According to the petition, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus sought the order last week so that the 186 asylum seekers now staying at the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham in the Town of Newburgh may remain in the county.
The ruling states that if any of the present migrants leave the hotels, no new migrants will be permitted to move in, CNN reported.
In a statement, Neuhaus said that New York City should not expand its services to Orange County by opening a homeless shelter there. Neuhaus added, "The city is a self-proclaimed sanctuary city; Orange County is not. We should not have to bear the burden of the immigration crisis that the Federal government and Mayor Adams created, and I will continue to fight for Orange County's residents in regard to this important manner."
The Challenge of Addressing a Massive Flood of Asylum Seekers
The backlash is occurring as New York City tries to accommodate a large influx of migrants, some of whom were bused to the city from southern states by Republican governors and municipal politicians.
Officials estimate that 35,000 of the over 65,000 migrants who have been processed through New York City since the last spring are still in the city's custody. To deal with the situation, Mayor Adams said that the city had created more than 140 emergency shelters and eight massive humanitarian support facilities.
To cope with what authorities expected to be a larger influx of migrants following the expiry of Covid-related border restriction Title 42 last week, the Adams administration planned to send willing migrants to hotels outside the city.
A week ago, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made a request to the federal government for help in building and maintaining temporary shelters "in anticipation of several thousand asylum seekers arriving in New York City every week."
A Sense of Dismay at the Judge's Ruling
Mayor Adams' office expressed dismay with the judge's decision in a statement to CNN on Tuesday evening, May 16.
Adams' press secretary Fabien Levy told CNN, "New York City has cared for more than 65,000 migrants - sheltering, feeding, and caring for them, and we have done so largely without incident."
The representative emphasized the need for the federal government to take charge. But in the meantime, they are urging local, state, and federal representatives to all do their share.
Levy added that due to overcrowding, New York is only requesting Orange County to take care of a small percentage of the asylum seekers who have arrived in the city at no cost to the county.
Rockland County is another municipality in New York that has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that Adams' plan to bus migrants to a hotel there violates the city's legal power. A court has already issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the city from transporting migrants to a hotel in Rockland County.
