Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - A contract that is keeping migrants in Western New York is set to expire on Dec. 31, however, questions about their departure have yet to be answered.
Town of Cheektowaga's Supervisor Brian Nowak says there have been some discussion around what will happen to them, but it's ultimately up to New York City to decide.
"There are folks here. Federal Government knows they're here. In terms of getting asylum hearings, they're a couple years out on this stuff. We've got an immigration system that is broken, and it needs real attention from the federal government. Now we have people waiting years and years for asylum hearings at this point," said Nowak in an interview with WBEN. "There's a lot of talk about letting folks come here legally, having folks do it the right way, but we're making that more and more challenging as a country, and we got to do something about it."
Nowak says the town is prepared to enforce court order to ensure both of their hotels can open back up, but did not explain how that would play out.
"Our board, with bipartisan agreement was united on passing a resolution to make sure our town attorney was being proactive and getting ready to enforce court order if need be. Now, myself, like the others on the town board, we want to make sure the hotels are getting back in regular working order as intended under zoning," stated Nowak.
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DocGo's contract launched on May 5, 2023, and was originally a one-year contract. However, it was extended through the rest of 2024.
DocGo is a publicly traded company that was hired by New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to provide shelter for thousands of migrants throughout New York State.
WBEN did reach out to leaders in the Town of Amherst, who has also been housing migrants, but received no comments.