NEW YORK — Anticipating a new influx of immigrants arriving in the tri-state area as COVID-19-era immigration restrictions known as the “Title 42New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued an executive order easing the city’s legal restrictions on the right to refuge rules.
The order, announced Wednesday night, will effectively focus on three things:
- First, suspend a rule that prohibits families with children from staying in congregate settings, such as barrack-style shelters. The change allows the city to place families in already established shelters instead of finding new places (such as hotels outside of the city) to house families.
- Another change would relax a rule that requires the city to obtain a bed for people within a set period of time. Prior to the mayor’s executive order, families with children who applied for shelter before 10:00 pm were guaranteed placement in a shelter unit sometime that night.
- The order also relaxes a rule regarding illegal evictions and how they are applied to shelter residents. Under the exception, those staying in hotels would be excluded from the rule that anyone living in New York City housing for 30 days cannot be immediately evicted without certain legal proceedings.
A city spokesperson said “this was not a decision taken lightly and we will do everything we can to get asylum seekers as quickly as possible.”
The City Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The Legal Aid Society y Coalition for the Homeless They said in a joint statement that the executive order changes could “force families with children to languish in the city’s intake facilities for extended periods, possibly days at a time, prolonging suffering that no human being should ever experience.”
Cristina Navarrete updates us.
The statement says that Adams is “heading down a dangerous path” and that housing rights laws “have protected people from immeasurable harm” for decades. The groups said changing the rules could put families at risk.
“This order could potentially lead to the city regularly placing homeless families with children in congregate settings, a dangerous and widely condemned practice from the distant past,” the statement read. “We appreciate the efforts of city staff to avoid putting people in harm’s way, but we have learned through experience that congregate shelters put families and children at risk of communicable diseases and sexual assault, and have a negative impact on mental health.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said they are considering their options, including possible litigation.
The news comes amid the ongoing battle over plans to house asylum seekers in the Hudson Valley. In Rockland County, sheriff’s deputies stationed themselves outside the Armoni Hotel in Orangeburg, where a temporary restraining order is in place preventing immigrants from staying here.
The city was looking to send a couple hundred immigrant men to the northern suburbs in what the mayor’s staff would be an emergency-use hotel. But Rockland officials said that would simply be a subterfuge for a city-run illegal shelter.
“This is a renegade operation on the part of the mayor, and I can’t even begin to believe what’s going on right now,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said. “I have never seen such bullying and arrogance in my entire career.”
On Wednesday, the mayor’s press secretary responded by saying, I quote, “we will let the hotel decide how to move forward in Rockland County, but our plan remains to move a small number of asylum seekers to Orange County, barring any further security issues”.
The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh was another target location, as Orange and Rockland county officials declared states of emergency.
In a call with the mayor’s staff Tuesday, Orangetown Supervisor Teresa Kenny was still furious about the fact that beds suddenly appeared at the Armani Hotel last weekend.
“It was a sneak attack in the middle of the night. Yesterday at 4:30 pm they called us to let us know and told us the buses kept coming,” Kenny said.
While a temporary injunction is in place to prevent the hotel from accepting immigrants, Rockland County is seeking a permanent injunction against New York City and the hotel. A hearing is scheduled for Monday morning.
A group of senators presented an immigration bill on Thursday with which they seek to counteract the arrival of undocumented immigrants at the border. To see more from Telemundo, visit
2023-05-11 13:38:35
#NYC #relaxes #rules #refuge #anticipation #arrival #migrants
