Groups urge Hochul to force towns to accept migrants | New York

(The Center Square) — Advocacy groups are calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force cities and towns to accept asylum-seekers relocated from New York City.

In a letter to Hochul, the Coalition for the Homeless and New York Legal Aid Society is leading nearly 100 groups urging her administration to take a more “aggressive approach” to dealing with a surge of migrants that has overwhelmed New York City’s homeless shelters. 

The letter, delivered to Hochul on Monday, calls explicitly on Hochul to use the authority of her office to “invalidate” executive orders in counties that have refused to accept new arrivals or intervene in pending legal challenges “to overturn the obstructive executive orders.” 

“Doing so would immediately open up a significant number of hotel rooms for new arrivals, keeping them safe and off the streets,” the groups wrote. 

The groups call on Hochul to personally pressure county executives and local officials to take in migrants, identify more state-owned sites to house migrant families and coordinate statewide relocation plans. 

“The current ad hoc approaches have resulted in busloads of families and individuals showing up unexpectedly in localities around the state and in almost nightly news images of suffering crowds of men, women and children desperate for help,” they wrote. “Such outcomes fuel feelings of chaos and confusion among all New Yorkers who know that we can, and must, do better.”

New York City has seen an influx of nearly 100,000 asylum seekers over the past year and a surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. The surge coincided with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that required migrants to stay in Mexico while requesting asylum, which expired in May.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has opened nearly 200 “humanitarian” relief centers to provide housing, food and other necessities for nearly 60,000 migrants under the city’s care. He has sought to relocate migrants to upstate counties, but the move has been met with resistance. He filed a lawsuit against 30 counties that passed restrictions on migrant relocations.

Hochul has defended her administration’s response to the migrant crisis, including $1 billion in state funding approved as part of the budget for asylum seekers. 

In May, she signed an emergency declaration authorizing National Guard deployments and other steps to help deal with the migrant crisis. 

Hochul has also met with Biden administration officials to discuss the possibility of housing migrants in federal sites, including Floyd Bennett Field, a former air base in Brooklyn, and Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, a U.S. Army Reservist training ground, among other locations.

But critics say Hochul has been reluctant to use her bully pulpit as the state’s chief executive to force county governments to accept migrants. 

“This moment demands urgency from the Hochul Administration, and we call on the governor for increased resources in the form of funding, facilities, staffing, coordination and more, as legally obligated under New York State’s Constitution,” Adriene Holder, chief attorney of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement.