Orange County Seeks Restraining Orders Against NYC Over Migrants

ORANGE COUNTY, NY — Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus on Friday filed two lawsuits to stop the City of New York from temporarily housing migrants and/or asylum seekers in the county.

The first lawsuit is against both the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham, both located in the Town of Newburgh to stop them from allowing NYC from giving the migrants room and board there as well as services.

Putting up migrants under the NYC program violates the Order and Declaration of Emergency issued by Neuhaus earlier this week, officials said. SEE: Orange County Exec Declares State of Emergency Over NYC Asylum-Seeker Plan

The second suit argues that the migrants are, essentially, homeless people. Under state law, the city is prohibited from setting up homeless shelters outside the five boroughs in the manner it did this week, officials said.

Neuhaus said state and city officials had assured him and town officials that no buses with asylum seekers would arrive until further notice. However, a day later, 20 to 30 migrants arrived at the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh and a few more were expected. SEE: Officials Surprised As Asylum-Seekers Arrive In Newburgh Thursday

"Unlike Rockland County, which had a hotel that wasn’t in compliance with existing permitting requirements, the hotels in Orange County had valid permits to exist as short-term rentals. Accordingly, the time to sue could not effectively start until the individual's Mayor Eric Adams sent here arrived, and these permitted short-term rental units were converted into long-term homeless housing shelters, which is not legal," Orange County Attorney Rick Golden said in an announcement about the lawsuits.

"This issue was created by Mayor Adams and the Federal government’s failed immigration policies," Neuhaus said, adding that New York City should deal alone with the 60,000 migrants that have arrived in the past year because it declared itself a sanctuary city in 2017.

According to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, "The phrase sanctuary city is not a legal term, but one developed over time and more recently reflecting a response to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) policies and actions. In general, a sanctuary city is a community with a policy, written or unwritten, that discourages local law enforcement from reporting the immigration status of individuals unless it involves investigation of a serious crime. These sanctuary communities go beyond cities, though. One can find entire counties and states declaring sanctuary status."

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