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Suffolk County lawmakers come out against housing asylum seekers
The Presiding Officer of Suffolk County, Kevin McCaffrey, held a news conference Sunday to speaking against NYC sending migrants. FOX 5's Christine Russo reports.
SUFFOLK COUNTY - Suffolk County officials said they are not willing to accept asylum seekers coming from New York City.
The Presiding Officer of Suffolk County, Kevin McCaffrey, said the legislature there will block any plans New York City has to send migrants to hotels in their county.
The Mayor's office, meanwhile, has not confirmed those plans.
"Be very clear. The residents of Suffolk County should not have to shoulder the burden of the failed policies of the Biden and Hochul administrations," McCaffrey said earlier.
The message met with outrage by protestors, like Pilar Moya, who said she fled the Peruvian civil war 27 years ago.
"I understand that we don’t want to put a burden on taxpayers, but at same time, there’s people like me. I was in asylum seeker at 18 years old. My first job was cleaning apartments in the Upper West Side and babysitting the babies of the rich in Manhattan and I put myself through college," Moya told FOX 5.
But the response was clear from the other side who said Suffolk County is not a sanctuary city.
"I came here with nothing, and we had to work for it," one woman said.
"Trump had it right , build a wall, don’t let them in," Danielle Perichilli, a Suffolk County resident said.
Currently, under immigration law, there are restraints on who is admissible to enter the country and there are criminal penalties for those crossing the border unlawfully.
However, people arriving at the border still have a legal right to request asylum without being criminalized.
Meanwhile, the Suffolk County Executive, Steve Bellone, has previously said that he is open to the idea of hosting migrants and asylum seekers in this area.