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Orange County Receives Restraining Order Against Additional Asylum Seekers

A State Supreme Court judge has granted a temporary restraining order to a Hudson Valley county that stops New York City from sending additional asylum seekers.

Some of the first migrants to arrive in Orange County.

Some of the first migrants to arrive in Orange County.

Photo Credit: Rene Mejia, Newburgh Community Organizer

The order was granted to Orange County on Tuesday, May 16, said Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus.

“New York City should not be establishing a homeless shelter outside of its borders in Orange County,” Neuhaus said. “The city is a self-proclaimed sanctuary city; Orange County is not. We should not have to bear the burden of the immigration crisis that the federal government and Mayor Adams created.”

As modified by the court, the order allows the 186 asylum seekers at the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham in the town of Newburgh to remain in Orange County, Neuhaus said.

However, it prohibits the City of New York from sending any additional asylum seekers to Orange County, pending further submissions from the parties and future determinations by the court. 

The County learned after the court hearing that New York City was anticipating sending seven busloads of new migrants/asylum seekers to the county today, Neuhaus said.

Because of the court order, that will not happen, he said.

The parties will be back in court on Wednesday, June 21.

According to Orange County Attorney Richard Golden, if any of the 186 asylum seekers leave the two hotels, New York City is not allowed to send individuals to replace them. 

Neuhaus filed two lawsuits on behalf of the county on  Friday, May 12, to stop the City of New York from illegally sending its homeless migrants and/or asylum seekers to the County.

The first lawsuit is against both the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham, stopping the hotels from accepting New York City’s homeless migrants and/or asylum seekers in violation of the prior order and Declaration of Emergency issued by Neuhaus. 

The second lawsuit against the city and Mayor Adams is to stop the City from establishing unlicensed and unregulated homeless shelters in Orange County for these migrants and/or asylum seekers. 

Under state law, the city is prohibited from setting up homeless shelters outside of the five boroughs in the manner it did last week, Neuhaus said.

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