Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Safety concerns over migrants living at the Red Roof Inn in Amherst are on the rise after a female minor was stabbed by an adult.
Legislator Chris Greene says the facts surrounding the incident are limited, but it reflects a common theme that seems to be popping up all over the country.
"These are all predictable situations. We know that when everybody was crossing the border for the last few years that there were unvetted migrants. ICE released some statements about 6-to-8 weeks ago, saying that there's 425,000 convicted criminals that are currently at large in in the United States. 13,000 of those have been convicted of murder in their in their home country, and 16,000 were were convicted of sexual assault," stated Greene in an interview with WBEN.
Greene says the housing situation at the Red Roof Inn is part of a contract with DocGo, a publicly traded company hired by New York City to care for them. However, that contract is expected to expire on Dec. 31 of this year, and there still isn't a clear plan to relocate them.
"I suspect that we'd probably be looking at getting them back to their home base of New York City. But right now, nobody really knows the answer to that," stated Greene.
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Greene believes the contract will be re-negotiated and will cost Erie County taxpayers even more money than what they've already spent.
"Obviously, we need to make sure that we don't incur additional costs. I can tell you, based on the conversations that I had with the sheriff today, that we are spending money housing criminals in our jails right now. Everybody obviously innocent until proven guilty. They're certainly allowed to have their day in court, but they do so at a cost to the taxpayers. That's already been a line that's been breached, and I don't want to see this end up falling on our shoulders as taxpayers in Erie County, when this ultimately is really New York City's problem to deal with," stated Greene.
Greene says not every migrant has criminal intent, but there's no way to know a person's intent if they're not vetted at the border.
"I think the good people will continue to be good, and the evildoers will continue to do evil. I think they have been since they entered in this country," stated Greene.