The administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams has filed a lawsuit against 30 upstate counties ”“ including four in the lower Hudson Valley region ”“ that are attempting to block his relocation of migrants from the city to hotels in their counties.
“Since this crisis began, New York City has ”” virtually on its own ”” stepped up to provide shelter, food, clothing, and other services to asylum seekers arriving in our city. We are doing our part and will continue to do our part, but we need every locality across the state to do their part as well,” said Adams in a press statement. “We have repeatedly sounded the alarm that our shelter system is at capacity and that we are out of space. While many communities have been overwhelmingly supportive and enthusiastic about welcoming these new arrivals to their cities and towns, some elected officials have attempted to build metaphorical walls around their localities with unlawful executive orders. This lawsuit aims to put an end to this xenophobic bigotry and ensure our state acts as one as we work together to manage this humanitarian crisis fairly and humanely, as we have done from the beginning and as we will continue to do.”
Adams noted that 74,000 migrants have arrived within the five boroughs seeking shelter, with more than 47,200 residing in city-operated shelters. In the lawsuit, Adams”™ administration stated the city was willing to pay to shelter the migrants in hotels within the upstate counties. The lawsuit cited the Rockland County example that “forced a hotel to close, displacing ordinary hotel guests and posting county law enforcement to monitor the location 24 hours a day.”
Rockland County Executive Ed Day had pushed back on Adams”™ insistence that the county house the migrants, stating earlier this week that “these people are heading to New York City because it is a sanctuary city and instead of living up to that declaration of sanctuary, Mayor Eric Adams and the city is exporting them to neighboring municipalities across the state of New York, including Rockland County.”
Rockland County is being sued along with Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties. The Adams administration lawsuit seeks the voiding of the executive orders by the upstate county governments barring the relocation of the city”™s migrants “as in excess of authority, affected by an error of law, arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”
Photo courtesy of Mayor Adams”™ Instagram page
