Defended by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday criticized fellow Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial program to bus migrants to other parts of the state as cases rose.
At a press conference intended to discuss the Environmental Bond Act, a $4.2 billion initiative to address climate change in western New York, Hochul ended up taking questions from an influx of nearly 70,000 onlookers. an asylum that arrived in New York City.
“We encourage them to give as much notice as possible to county executives. Because of the amount of people affected, it’s not always perfect,” Hochul said of Adams’ plans to bus the migrants up – and possibly Long Island – and put them up in hotels there for a few months, if not longer.
With Title 42 about to expire, the city saw 5,800 people arrive in one week, and about 4,000 the week before. More than 48,000 migrants are currently housed in New York City shelters.
“It’s all about just being prepared. And many people say the sky is falling before anything happens. Most of these people are simply looking for legal humanitarian relief. They are there legally. They have the right to seek asylum in this country based on what they had to endure in their countries of birth,” Hochul said.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference to call on the federal government to issue work permits to asylum seekers in Brooklyn on Monday, May 22, 2023. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The governor thanked Eerie County Executive Mike Poloncarz, a Democrat, for accepting the migrants from New York City, but said there were no plans to send them there yet. Hochul said the state capital of Albany, “with the announcement of the mayor there” is receiving migrants from New York City, and the transfer “is going well from what we’ve heard.”
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, another Democrat, said a second and third group of about 40 migrants would arrive in the state capital on Sunday and Monday, bringing the total received in Albany to 105. migrants, the Albany Times Union reported.
Meanwhile, the town of Colonie, located in Albany County, was granted a temporary court order to prevent more asylum seekers from being sent there from New York City.
About two dozen migrants arrived at a Best Western’s SureStay Plus Hotel in Colonie Saturday night, the New York Daily News reported. The city government sued the New York City Supreme Court in Albany, saying that the Adams administration “did not try to communicate” with the city on its relocation plans.
Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey, elected in June as the town’s first Republican supervisor in 14 years, released a statement describing the hotel as a “hotbed of police activity,” and accused Adams of “disregarding welfare of the people subject to. his forced bussing disaster.”
Asylum seekers board a bus to a shelter at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on May 18, 2023, in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams spoke of the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants as his administration struggled to find places to stay. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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“New York City’s housing system is overflowing,” Hochul said Tuesday, noting Friday’s announcement that a re-purposed New York City jail could accommodate more than 500 inmates. man. State and city officials are also looking at a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport, pending federal approval.
“We’re very focused on servicing all of the state’s properties and that will include SUNY dorms, closed psychiatric centers, and anywhere else we can find space to help take some of the burden off. in New York City and their housing needs,” said Hochul, adding that “[t]There are no reports of individuals coming west of New York at this time.”
When asked directly if SUNY’s campuses in Eerie County are being considered to house asylum seekers from New York City, Hochul said, “every asset in the state is on the list to watch.”
Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican, said a judge on Tuesday extended a restraining order for another two weeks to further delay the transfer of asylum seekers from New York City. A lawsuit filed by the county earlier this month says Adams’ plan to move 340 single, adult men from New York City to the Armoni Inn & Suites in the town of Orangeburg effectively “could quadruple” the homeless population in Rockland County.
A Newburgh City police vehicle is parked outside The Crossroads Hotel where two buses loaded with migrants arrived hours earlier, Thursday, May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Orange County is also suing New York City over the planned relocation of migrants to the city of Newburgh, and a hearing is set for June 21.
In support of what Adams calls a “decompression strategy,” Hochul said he will continue efforts to appeal to the federal government to approve the migrant work permit.
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“I have so many employers and farmers who are in desperate need of good workers. These people come here to work,” he said. “The population of Western New York, the population of Buffalo wouldn’t have grown if it wasn’t for the refugees who came here from places like Burma, Somalia and Thailand. They are now part of the economy here.”
