NEWBURGH, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — Orange County is following Rockland County in declaring a state of emergency over New York City's plan to send 60 male migrants to a hotel in Newburgh.
On Monday, Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus instructed local hotels not to house asylum-seekers sent by New York City over safety concerns.
"I don't know who these guys are," he said. "Are they criminals from other places, or are they people that have been vetted and are going to do a great job?"
He argued that there will be "people that'll show up at the hotel saying, 'Get the hell out of here!'"
"That creates a serious security problem, and instead of busing them up here and dumping them off here, are they going to have someone representing from the city taking care of them?" he asked.
The Republican said Orange County is simply not equipped to handle the needs of hundreds of migrants.
Now he wants Gov. Kathy Hochul and the federal government to intervene.
It remains to be seen whether the emergency tactic by Neuhaus and Rockland County Executive Ed Day will be successful.
Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan Friday to bus up to 300 single adult male migrants to the two counties north of the city on a voluntary basis.
Under the program, the men would be provided with meals, counseling and other services during their city-paid hotel stays. Adams said the program would help the city handle the more than 37,500 asylum-seekers in the city’s care.
The Democrat announced the plan as cities across the U.S. prepare for an increase in migrants seeking asylum when pandemic-era policy Title 42, which permitted the expulsion of many migrants, ends on Thursday.
Adams has for months been criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, for offering free bus rides out of his state to migrants crossing the U.S. southern border. Thousands of those migrants have chosen to go to New York City.
The Adams administration has been using hotels within the city to house some migrants, mainly families with children. Plans to house others at sites including a cruise ship terminal and a beach parking lot in the Bronx have been scrapped.
Adams' press secretary, Fabien Levy, said in a statement that the administration "has been clear that the burden of caring for asylum seekers shouldn't fall on any one city alone."
"We have reached our limit of new shelters that we can open right now, and we currently have no other option but to temporarily house recent arrivals in gyms," Levy continued. "This weekend alone, we received hundreds of asylum seekers every day, and with Title 42 set to be lifted this week, we expect more to arrive in our city daily. We are considering a multitude of options, but, as we’ve been saying for a year, we desperately need federal and state support to manage this crisis."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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