NYC Mayor sues more than 30 NY counties for refusing to house migrants


NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 18: Asylum seekers board a bus en route to a shelter at Port Authority Bus Terminal on May 18, 2023, in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams addressed the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants and stated that his administration is struggling to find emergency shelter sites and is pleading for help from federal and state officials. Adams has been exploring various options for shelters, including municipal buildings, vacant offices, and even Rikers Island, the notorious city jail, as well as 20 public school gyms to be used as emergency sites. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Asylum seekers board a bus en route to a shelter at Port Authority Bus Terminal on May 18, 2023, in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams addressed the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants and stated that his administration is struggling to find emergency shelter sites and is pleading for help from federal and state officials (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

OAN’s Noah Herring
4:20 PM – Thursday, June 8, 2023

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is suing 30 New York counties for blocking the city from housing migrants in their towns. 

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Adams announced the lawsuit on Wednesday and called the actions by these counties an “unlawful attempt” to prevent New York City from responding to a statewide emergency and humanitarian crisis. 

“This lawsuit aims to put an end to this xenophobic bigotry and ensure our state acts as one as we work together to manage this humanitarian crisis fairly and humanely, as we have done from the beginning and as we will continue to do,” Adams said. 

The lawsuit mentions Rockland and Orange counties, as well as 31 additional counties and one other town that issued migrant-related emergency orders after Adams announced that they will begin busing migrants to hotels and motels in the area. 

In a City Hall press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Adam’s corporation counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix described the emergency orders as “misguided and unlawful” filings “premised on false claims,” and that asylum seekers pose a serious threat to public safety.

“Respondents’ EOs burden and obstruct New York City’s lawful and reasonable efforts to address the ongoing statewide humanitarian crisis in a manner that is explicitly permitted by law and required by this statewide emergency,” the lawsuit noted during filing in the Manhattan state Supreme Court.

The suit also requests that the court deems the emergency orders “null and void” and invalidate them “in excess of authority, affected by an error of law, arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion.” 

On Monday, a preliminary injunction was placed by a Southern District judge preventing Orange and Rockland counties from enforcing their emergency orders on the grounds that the orders violate the migrants’ Fourth Amendment rights. 

Absent from the city’s suit are Albany and Monroe counties, which also filed emergency migrant orders. 

According to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams Isom, around 72,000 migrants have recently passed through New York City since last spring. 

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