Rockland County threatens fines, lawsuit in reply to Adams’ migrants plan

Rockland County officials on Monday pushed back against plans by Mayor Eric Adams to bus 300 or more asylum seekers upstate, saying they’re considering legal action to block the move and would fine any hotel that takes in asylum seekers up to $2,000 per person, per day.

The action, announced at a heated news conference which brought together angry county officials with U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents Rockland County, and immigrant rights advocates, followed the declaration of a 30-day state of emergency by County Executive Ed Day, who claims the designation would prevent outside municipalities from bringing migrants to Rockland.

The pushback comes amid rising concern that the expiration of a pandemic-era law known as Title 42 this week would result in a surge in the number of people allowed to cross the Southern Border into the United States, eventually meaning more migrants being dispatched to New York by border-state officials..

Day, a Republican, said the county is simply unequipped to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers.

“Three hundred-forty people is about five times the amount of the homeless population here in Rockland County. That’s a huge amount of change,” Day said.

The Adams administration did not respond to accusations from Rockland County officials that they’d been blindsided by the proposal and given few details about where asylum seekers were to be taken. On Friday, the mayor issued a statement noting that the city had received “over 60,800 asylum seekers” since last spring, of which 37,500 remained in city shelters

The plan, said Adams, would specifically allow for single, male asylum seekers to voluntarily transfer to one of two hotels, one in Rockland County and another in Orange County, for up to four months, and that those who do would receive “the same city-funded services available at Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers” in the city.

Calls to the Armoni Inn and Suites, the Rockland County hotel set to receive a portion of the asylum seekers, went unanswered.

Adams additionally blamed the Biden administration and Congress for failing to establish a “decompression strategy” to help manage the crisis and that in absence of a federal response, “New York City has been left without the necessary support to manage this crisis.”

This rationale brought a strong response from Day.

“Mayor Adams can criticize Congress for its failure to establish a national decompression strategy,” he said. “But it is hypocritical and frankly it is maddening to then turn around and do the exact same thing to a county that is not even a sanctuary county.”

Others who spoke at the press conference raised concerns about the prospects for asylum seekers brought upstate, given the lack of public transportation in the suburbs and access to jobs, and said nonprofit groups were already under considerable strain.

“In April, over 475 households came to our food pantry for food,” said Daniel Eudene, the executive director of Catholic Charities of Rockland County. “That’s more than double the number that we had three years ago.

Lawler said the Adams administration’s plan was “a farce” because it failed to address critical details, such as the long-term scenario for anyone who relocated upstate.

“Are they providing adequate funding to Rockland County to help social services fund the additional burden they're creating?” asked Lawler. “What happens when the four months are up? Who's paying for it? Is New York City sending a blank check to Rockland County?”

The press conference was streamed live on Facebook, where more than 130 people weighed in with comments, many of them opposed to the possibility of asylum seekers, specifically single men, being relocated to Rockland County and concerned about the impact on public safety.

“For the sake of our children and senior citizens please keep them out of our town,” wrote Cathy Thompson. “We pay huge taxes so we can keep our families safe.”