When Adams announced the plan back in May, several counties, including Orange and Rockland Counties, declared states of emergency in an effort to block the move, citing a lack of notice and communication from Adams’ team and a shortage of resources to take the migrants in.
In Rockland County, that stance hasn’t changed. This week, County Executive Ed Day’s office sent a letter to every hotel in the county, reminding them that an emergency order banning outside municipalities from establishing shelters or temporary housing is still in effect. Day, a Republican, tells WAMC it’s Rockland County, not New York City, that lacks the infrastructure to house the migrants.
"We are having great difficulty here right now, so to have someone turn around and drop in 100, 200, 300 people at one time — it's just not workable," says Day. "You're dooming these poor people to failure, there's no other way of putting it."
Day says he sent out the reminder to hotel owners this week because he feels New York City isn’t getting the message.
"We got a phone call from someone identifying themselves from the mayor's office, here in my office, asking us if there were any hotels they could use," he notes. "They had no idea who they were talking to."
According to the Rockland County order, any hotel that enters a contract without permission from the county can be fined up to $2,000 per violation, per day, and have their permit to operate suspended.
Meanwhile, Westchester County has taken the opposite approach. Calling it a humanitarian and managerial concern, Democratic County Executive George Latimer was one of the first leaders in the region to say he would be opening the county’s doors. Since May, he says they have received roughly 400 people across 150 rooms at three sites: the Ramada by Wyndham Inn in Yonkers, the Ardsley Acres Hotel Court in Ardsley, and at the Central Motel Courtyard in White Plains.
Latimer says most of the migrants are women and children, and none of the children are of school age. The Ardsley and White Plains locations are largely operated by DocGo, one of New York City’s contractors for the plan. Latimer says he hasn’t encountered the same communication issues with DocGo experienced by officials in the Capital Region. He’s more concerned about the long-term impacts of the move, and whether Westchester County will be able to provide the services people need.
"You can't have people in a motel, even if it's well-managed, for two years. The three-year-old kid that we have will become five, and will need to be educated," Latimer explains. "The child who only speaks Spanish will have to undergo some sort of ESL structure, and when you put them in a motel in a particular location, you don't know if that particular school district has the appropriate ESL capacity."
Speaking with WAMC Wednesday, Latimer says the largest of the three sites is in Yonkers. Democratic Mayor Mike Spano says they’re managing the influx pretty well so far — Yonkers has been working with the organization WestHab, rather than DocGo — but he, too, worries about the long-term viability of the situation.
In addition to not getting additional aid from New York City or the state to cover its efforts, he says Yonkers hasn't even received tax revenue from the use of the Ramada by Wyndham, due to a loophole allowing government entities — a.k.a. New York City — to not pay such taxes.
"I think it speaks volumes about local governments up here that are being shouldered with the burden of taking care of the asylum seekers, but [lacking] the commitment that the bigger governments should show us, in terms of giving us just a minimum amount of help for us to be able to do the things we need to do," adds Spano. "But like I said before, we're managing."
Many local organizations are stepping up to help the migrants. In an email to WAMC, Ardsley Mayor Nancy Kaboolian, a Democrat, credited the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry with being one of the first organizations on the scene, providing weekly food deliveries for roughly 70 people. She says Family-to-Family in Hastings-on-Hudson has been collecting donated clothing, duffle bags, strollers, and Visa gift cards for individuals. Community Nursery School in Dobbs Ferry has been providing summer camp for pre-school aged children. And Rivertowns for Refugees has organized weekly laundry service with DJ Cleaners in Dobbs Ferry.
Ultimately, Latimer chalks up the confusion to problems with the nation’s overall immigration system — and with southern states bussing migrants to northern cities in the first place. He sees streamlining the immigration process as part of the long-term solution.
"We have asked the federal government to establish an immigration court, a satellite immigration court in White Plains, because we have a U.S. district courthouse in White Plains, to adjudicate the cases of those people that you're placing here. And I would extend it by saying in the neighboring counties, too. So if you're placing somebody in Dutchess or Orange County, they're proximate to White Plains, then you should take their cases — don't wait two years on some long grocery list — put them in the White Plains immigration court, and move them to the top of the list so you can adjudicate the cases faster."
