Rockland, Orange Face Off With NYCLU In Federal Court Over Migrants

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Attorneys for Orange and Rockland counties and the New York Civil Liberties Union faced off in federal court Thursday morning at a hearing on the NYCLU's lawsuit over emergency orders trying to stop New York City from temporarily housing migrant asylum seekers in local hotels.

The NYCLU filed suit on behalf of migrants who had signed up for the city's program. It asks the court to stop the two counties from interfering with migrants’ travel and lodging on Constitutional grounds.

There are also five suits in state court filed by the counties to stop the city and by the hotels against the counties.

Judge Nelson Román heard arguments from both sides, and then gave them until Monday to file supplementary briefs on whether the federal court should await the disposition of the state cases.

Attorney Amy Belsher, Director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, told Patch the federal case was about Constitutional matters, quite different from the zoning codes and state regulations at issue in the state cases.

The challenged Rockland and Orange County executive orders effectively block migrants and asylum seekers from traveling to and residing within county borders, the NYCLU argued.

"One important thing that came out of the hearing was the judge really pressing the counties on their assertion that this has nothing to do with migrants," Belsher said.

Neither Rockland nor Orange county officials had responded to Patch's requests for comment by the time this article was published.

The two counties had issued executive orders barring hotels from making rooms available to New York City's program for temporarily housing some of the more than 60,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in recent months.

The NYCLU is representing four plaintiffs who are migrants and who opted into the program.

"These executive orders are unlawful," Belsher said Thursday. When the suit was filed May 11, she said, "Migrants have every right to travel and reside anywhere in New York, free of xenophobic harassment and discrimination."

Also, the NYCLU argued, both Rockland and Orange invoked a non-existent emergency, issuing orders over the possibility of immigrants entering their communities and a potential burden on social services.

Moreover, the NYCLU said in its suit that not only the language in the orders but also remarks and accusations by county officials were xenophobic harassment and discrimination. County officials have linked asylum seekers with child rape, gangs and crime in news conferences and interviews, the suit said.

Rockland came up with a new argument in court on Thursday, according to The Journal News. Assistant Rockland County Attorney Larraine Feiden said the county was concerned about "the potential for mayhem."

The newspaper characterized the hearing as "contentious" and said the judge expressed concern over the executive orders' resemblance to Jim Crow-era laws.

Since NYC’s plan to transport asylum seekers to the suburbs was discovered, many counties outside the city, and several towns, have declared states of emergency against a potential organized influx of migrants.

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