Will migrant buses flood Orange, Westchester counties due to new NYC executive order?
NEW YORK - Now that New York City Mayor Eric Adams's executive order limiting migrant bus arrivals is in effect, suburban communities in upstate counties like Orange, Westchester and Rockland are bracing for the impact.
County and suburban leaders are concerned that this order will lead to migrants being dropped off in their communities, so bus companies can avoid fines or even criminal charges.
And their concerns are valid: In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson implemented similar limits, resulting in an influx of migrants in neighboring suburbs as buses began stopping short of the Windy City.
"We are more petrified than ever, all my county executives and colleagues," Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said. "If they sent more here, it's just going to make the problem worse."
Adams met with upstate county leaders Thursday night, who are now discussing executive orders of their own.
"I told the county attorney, 'Let's make a decision probably in the next 24 hours,'" Neuhaus said.
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And Orange County is not alone.
Stephen Acquario, the executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, said that due to a growing homelessness and housing problem in the state, the shelter system for upstate counties is also at capacity. He believes they would not be able to handle even a fraction of the number of migrants arriving almost daily here in the city.
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Migrants who have traveled to the U.S., seeking asylum are often finding themselves waiting for weeks or even months before their asylum claim even begins to be processed.
"The federal government is abdicating its responsibility," Acquario said. "It can't delegate customs and border control to the states, and it can't delegate it to New York City. So why are we dealing with this? We don't need money. We need process."
Neuhaus is set to take over as President of the Association of Counties at the beginning of the year. He said he is already putting together a coalition of county executives who plan to travel to the border in the next month or so.
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He said they are frustrated by the silence on the federal level and feel like the state is also not taking charge of this situation.
"The state legislature gets a big F, and [New York Gov. Kathy Hochul] gets a big F on this," Neuhaus said. "They don't want to address this. In the lack of leadership, somebody needs to take command and make some decisions here to try to fix the problem."
New York City's executive order
Two buses carrying migrants arrived in New York City early Friday morning, and while technically in violation of the new executive order, they will not be penalized since they arrived under a 32-hour grace period.
Adams's executive order, signed Wednesday afternoon, requires charter buses transporting migrants to give the city at least 32 hours advance notice.
The order also sets perimeters around dropoffs: between 8:30 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday at one designated spot within the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
If these buses carrying migrants arrive outside this time frame and with no advance notice, the operators could be charged with Class B misdemeanors, possible fines, lawsuits, and their buses could be impounded.
City Hall said police will be waiting at PABT to crack down on any new buses arriving outside of those limits.