(CNN) — Following New York Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement last week that the city will temporarily bus some migrants to hotels in nearby counties, Orange and Rockland county authorities filed lawsuits to try to stop the plan, even when some migrants have already arrived.
Counties have also issued executive orders barring the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers.
One of the lawsuits filed in Orange County state court, obtained by CNN, alleges that the city’s plan exceeds its authority, violates a county executive order and ignores shelter licensing requirements. The court is asked to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the city’s plan while the proceeding is pending.
Orange County officials “oppose the City Defendants’ unlawful and misguided attempts to manage their burdens and responsibilities borne within its borders by offloading them onto the county, which is already overburdened with responsibilities to its own citizens, without any planning,” according to the lawsuit.
Adams had said the new program is intended to provide up to four months of temporary housing for adult male asylum seekers who are already a ward of the city while they try to get work permits.
Days after Adams announced the plans for Orange and Rockland counties, Orange County Representative Steven Neuhaus issued an executive order banning immigrants from staying at area hotels.
Rockland County filed its own lawsuit Tuesday night. The lawsuit, filed in Rockland County Superior Court, alleges that Mayor Adams’ plan to bus immigrants to a county hotel exceeds the city’s legal authority.
A judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order against Adams’ plan, blocking the city from transporting the migrants to a hotel in Rockland County. The city has said it plans to appeal the restraining order. A hearing will be held on May 30 to determine whether to extend the order.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Orange and Rockland counties for blocking the arrival of asylum seekers from New York City, according to court documents.
According to the lawsuit, by issuing orders “that expressly seek to ‘prohibit immigrants’ and ‘asylum seekers’ from coming to the boroughs from New York City and further seek to prohibit local hotels from making their rooms available to immigrants for any length of time,” the counties violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the US Constitution.
Contacted by CNN for comment Thursday, Neuhaus said: “We have not been notified of any lawsuits.” CNN contacted Rockland and Orange county officials Saturday for further comment on the NYCLU lawsuit.
Rockland County officials said in a statement that while they do not typically comment on pending litigation, they “firmly believe that what they are doing is right and legal, as attested to by the court’s Temporary Restraining Order granted Thursday.”
“Plans haven’t changed”
The Orange County lawsuit details multiple examples of the city’s alleged “subterfuge.”
Orange County authorities believed the city planned to move 60 people to a county hotel, according to the lawsuit, but later learned the city planned to send more than 600 people to two hotels. The county claims this would more than double its homeless population, which was about 437 last month, according to the lawsuit.
After the county issued its executive order, the city “expressly assured” officials that no buses would be dispatched for the time being, according to the lawsuit.
“However, and despite these assurances, the buses showed up at the hotel on May 11, 2023, without prior notice, and unloaded the homeless men pursuant to the city’s proposed illegal transfer plan,” it says. the demand.
A spokesperson for Mayor Adams’ office said Wednesday that the city was “discussing legal and safety concerns with our state partners,” adding that while the city temporarily halted the transportation of migrants by bus to locations outside of the New York City, his “plans haven’t changed. A spokesman for Mayor Adams’ office said Thursday that Neuhaus’ statement about alleged assurances that no asylum seekers from the city would reach Orange County is inaccurate.
“New York City has served more than 65,000 migrants, taking them in, feeding them and caring for them, and we have done so largely without incident,” spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement Friday.
“We need the federal government to step up, but until it does, we need other elected officials across the state and country to do their part. Right now, we’re asking Orange County to manage less than ¼ of 1% of asylum seekers who have arrived in New York City, with New York paying for room, board and utilities. We are reviewing our legal options.”
Orange County also filed another complaint Friday against the two county hotels that plan to house migrants from New York City. The lawsuit seeks to prevent hotels from accepting asylum seekers and “converting” into homeless shelters, claiming it violates the county’s executive order.
The city of Newburgh, located in Orange County, also filed a lawsuit against one of the hotels. The lawsuit alleges that housing the immigrants is not permitted by the building’s certificate of occupancy and would violate the city’s building construction and municipal codes.
“The mayor’s program failed to take into account or address local zoning, building, or fire codes governing proposed or ‘selected’ lodging locations,” the lawsuit says.
After Orange County issued its executive order, Newburgh inspectors visited the hotel and observed “the tampering with the beds, the insertion of additional bedding, and the tampering with the accommodations of the rooms,” the lawsuit says. The next day, the hotel received two busloads of people from the city, according to the lawsuit.
— CNN’s Gloria Pazmino, Samantha Beech, Celina Tebor and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.
2023-05-15 08:20:00
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