RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar issued an executive order on Tuesday barring any asylum seekers from being housed in the town.
The Republican executive signed the order as New York City Mayor Eric Adams looks to the suburbs as part of his plan to house asylum seekers.
The city claims more than 65,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican governors started bussing migrants from the southern border to sanctuary cities in the summer of 2022.
Adams has set up refugee camps, slated make-shift shelters for school gymnasiums and narrowed the city’s Right to Shelter law — rolling back the mandate for the city to offer a bed to those seeking one in a timely manner — all in response to asylum seekers arriving in the city.
Newsday reported only a few hundred asylum seekers have been housed on Long Island, and Adams has not yet solicited Suffolk or Nassau counties to join in the housing effort.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, said he was open to the idea of sheltering migrants in the county, whereas Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, rejected the idea.
“It falls in your lap, and you’ve gotta address it, and we’re committed to doing that in a responsible, fiscally responsible and a humane way as well," said Bellone.
“New York City has chosen to be a sanctuary city… They’ve invited people there, and we have not,” said Blakeman.
While Adams has not yet enlisted Long Island counties in his asylum seeker shelter plan, he has been pushing to send migrants to other suburban counties.
Orange and Rockland counties have both declared states of emergency in an attempt to block vacant hotels from opening their doors to asylum seekers.
On Tuesday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent New York City from sending asylum seekers to Orange County.
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