Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Where are we going to shelter all the displaced migrants in Erie County?
For months, the hotels in the Town of Cheektowaga have been temporary residence for hundreds of migrants in Erie County. Now, some migrants are being moved to other parts of the county following a series of events that are forcing them to vacate.
Migrants are being moved out of a Dingens Street hotel, following an alleged migrant sexual assault a few weeks ago. Migrants are being moved out of Buffalo State University, following an announcement that the university will no longer house them last week. And now, the county will now have to place migrants that were being housed at a hotel on Genesee Street following a broken sprinkler flooding the hotel on Sunday.
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On Saturday, WBEN also learned about 52 migrant children and their parents are moving into the Red Roof Inn Plus in Amherst, temporarily solving a part of one the issues arising upon the arrival of the migrants from New York City.
Erie County has since cut off the New York City faucet of migrants being bussed to the area, following two migrants being charged with sexual assault, but is constantly hopping hotels the best solution to this particular issue?
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"We have organizations in Buffalo and Western New York that had been doing refugee resettlement and immigrant resettlement for over 100 years," Rep. Brian Higgins told WBEN Monday. "It's inhumane to take on more than you can handle, because these individuals have to be cared for, including housing and you're seeing a situation now where they're being moved around, and I don't know if it's with their consent or not. but that's a little bit of a problem."
Higgins thinks better immigration reform is a viable long-term solution.
"The other issue is, the federal government needs to step up and do comprehensive immigration reform, we haven't done comprehensive immigration reform in 37 years. There's a cost being imposed on local governments, there's as a cost being imposed on the State of New York, because of congressional and federal government inaction. I am very confident that these organizations, Jericho Road, International Institute, Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, and many others are doing the best that they can, given the circumstances that they're dealing with. We all want the same thing, and that is to ensure that these people are treated in a humane way, but these local governments need to get reimbursed for that money."
Higgins agrees there needs to be better coordination between local, county and state governments. The congressman also adds that there is some exploitation that is ensuing in regards to migrants coming to Erie County.
"As opposed to solving a problem, I think what's happening here is there is exploitation of the problem, and that's not good for anybody. The consequence is that local communities in the State of New York have to bear the financial responsibility for taking care of these people and the federal government should step up, they should expedite the ability to allow these immigrants to to work. There's a lot of work that needs to be done throughout the entire State of New York, and there are individuals that want to work, but there's this delay. There's a lot of blame to be assigned, but the most important thing is that we try to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible and get to a point of resolution that's acceptable to all."