On Thursday (May 11), New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched his plan to move several hundred undocumented immigrants to hotels in New York’s Orange and Rockland counties, diverting asylum seekers to areas that have fiercely opposed the plan.
County and local leaders in both counties opposed Adams’ plan to send more than 300 migrants to the Armoni Inn and Suites in Orangeburg in Rockland County and The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, Orange, the latter of which had migrants arrive on Thursday.
Supporters of the migrants gathered outside The Crossroads Hotel with signs welcoming the bussed migrants.
Orange County Legislator Kevindaryán Luján said outside the hotel that approximately 20 to 30 migrants had arrived in the first busload, and about 60 people, all men, were expected there Thursday.
Luján also expressed that the County was in “full solidarity with the asylum seekers.”
However, Orange County’s neighbor, Rockland County, wasn’t as welcoming, given two days earlier (Tuesday, May 9), the County obtained a temporary restraining order from a state Supreme Court Judge.
The County argued that the move violates local zoning codes.
As the battle rages to accommodate immigrants who have taxed New York’s facilities to breaking point, Adams argued that the rest of the state must step in to ease the burden on its largest city.
According to Fox News, a spokesperson for Adams explained that the city had already “cared for” over 61,000 Migrants “without incident” and now wanted the “federal government to step up,” but added that until the federal government steps in, “other elected officials around the state and country [should] do their part and emulate the humane and compassionate approach New York City has taken over the past year.”
