Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the Cheektowaga Town Board continues to move forward in seeking a preliminary injunction to keep hotels from accepting more migrants, a local immigration attorney tells WBEN the town's argument appears to be a strong one.
The town board is arguing that hotels housing migrants are operating as homeless shelters, in violation of the zoning code.
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State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo indicated Monday an eviction ruling could happen if he is convinced the safety of the surrounding public is at risk. The case returns to court on Friday.
"That is super interesting and actually makes a lot of sense," said Rosanna Berardi, of Berardi Immigration Law. "The asylum process, in which most of those being held in Cheektowaga are pursuing, is lengthy. We're talking years," she added during an appearance on WBEN Tuesday.
Berardi said hotels housing migrants are not being used in the manner in which they are prescribed to.
She said that the reason that migrants are in Western New York is because
New York City ran out of places to put them. At the same time, Berardi noted that there is no shortage of hotels in New York City.
'I think this is a pretty interesting legal argument that may have some "tooth" to it."
The chaos surrounding migrants is what Berardi calls a hot potato." The federal government is passing it down to the state, then to the county and the local municipality. Something has got to be done at a higher level so we can solve these issues and not spend all of this time compromising the health and safety, of the community and the migrant community."
How long can we expect these migrants to remain at hotels in Cheektowaga and Amherst?
Berardi laid out the asylum process. "Upon entry to the United States you have to file for asylum within a year of getting here. Most people do it immediately. Then you have to wait 150 days to apply for work authorization. Then the application for work authorization can take 6-12 months for approval. In the interim, no one can work. They have to live in facilities."
She added that this isn't going to end anytime soon since asylum processing times are abysmal. The number of people in the system has tripled in the last few years and the government can't keep up. "As a result you have a lot of people sitting around with the inability to work, or doing anything. And
that causes a lot of problems," she said.