Hudson Valley officials prepared Tuesday for the arrival of buses carrying asylum seekers from New York City as the city’s controversial plan drew continued criticism from the northern suburbs.
Teresa Kenny, the town supervisor in Orangetown in Rockland County, said she had been told buses carrying asylum seekers from the city would begin to arrive in her town on Wednesday.
Mayor Adams’ administration, which revealed last week that it intended to relocate about 300 migrants to the suburbs and to pay for them to stay there for four months, confirmed the timeline.
“That’s the plan, assuming there’s no security concerns,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams.
A city official, Tiffany Raspberry, said in a Tuesday briefing with City Council members and officials from Rockland and Orange County that the city would send 30 migrants to each county on Wednesday, according to a person on the call.
Kenny suggested Orangetown is not equipped to handle the arrivals, and said she intends to take legal action against a hotel, the Armoni Inn and Suites, if it hosts the migrants for longer than a month. The city’s plan violates a town law permitting stays of only up to 30 days, Kenny said in an interview.
“They’re essentially opening a shelter,” Kenny said of New York City officials. “They’re paying for a shelter.”
The Armoni Inn and Suites did not immediately respond to messages on Tuesday. Hundreds of mattresses were stacked outside the hotel on Friday, Kenny said.
Her threat of legal action came as the town of Newburgh, which is located in Orange County about 40 miles up the Hudson River, said it was bracing for the arrival of about 60 migrants from the city.
The Newburgh town supervisor, Gil Piaquadio, said in a statement that a “shelter is not not permitted” at the town’s Crossroads Hotel.
He added that notices had been delivered to hotels across Newburgh “making them aware of the Town Code that a shelter is not permitted use for a hotel or motel.”
Rockland County and Orange County have declared states of emergency in response to expected arrivals.
“The Rockland and Orange County executives have sadly not met their moral mandate and have responded with opposition when asked to care for less than ¼ of 1% of the asylum seekers who have come to New York City,” Levy, the Adams spokesman, said in a statement.
He noted the city would pay for food and shelter for the asylum seekers under the plan. The program is expected to only include single adult men.
The Rockland county executive, Ed Day, a Republican, has accused Adams, a Democrat, of engaging in “human trafficking of the worst kind.”
Levy fired back that Day had “shown he is not a leader” and spewed “racist rhetoric and reprehensible threats.”
Both Kenny and Piaquadio, the town supervisors, said Adams had reached out to them about the plan last Friday, and both said they expressed concerns to the mayor.
Kenny said she felt Adams had downplayed the busing plan on the phone last week and provided few details. She said she felt she “should have been told a lot sooner.”
For months, the city has been strained by waves of migration unleashed by political upheaval in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The Adams administration, which has struggled at times to shelter the arrivals, estimates it has cared for more than 61,000 migrants.
In the Midwest, Chicago started transfering asylum seekers to the suburbs last summer, shortly after that city was added to a Texas busing program that had already brought rounds of migrants to New York and Washington.
New York has tried to help some migrants move on to other locations, including to Canada, but had not fully embraced transfers to suburbs before this month. The move comes with Title 42, a COVID-era rule used to expel migrants at the border, set to expire Thursday.
Molly Wasow Park, the social services commissioner, said Monday that the city has “fully exhausted” its traditional options to handle the influx.
Levy said in his statement that the city needs “elected officials around the state and country to do their part and emulate the humane and compassionate approach New York City has taken over the past year.”
Also Tuesday, Gov. Hochul issued an executive order aimed at allowing the state and localities to buy supplies for asylum seekers as they arrive.
And city officials decamped to Kennedy Airport to examine buildings that could be repurposed into migrant housing, two people familiar with the matter said.
Camille Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff, sent a memo to city agencies on Sunday asking them to identify vacant space in buildings they operate that could be turned into migrant housing.